MEDIEVAL WOMEN AND PATRIARCHAL AGORAPHOBIA: CHAUCER’S THE PRIORESS AND THE WIFE OF BATH

Abstract

Spatial limitations have been among the means used by patriarchal societies to assert control over women’s gender and sexuality. Similarly, the patriarchal society controlled women’s spatial practices in medieval England. Both the secular women and the religious women were prone to spatial limitations that were regulated according to their social and sexual statuses. While the enclosure was at the core of a religious woman’s life at the nunnery, a secular woman’s moving beyond her village or city was severely criticized in the Middle Ages. Patriarchal agoraphobia defined such women in the open space as “open space,” implying their sexual vulnerability. However, from the fourteenth century onwards, both secular and religious women began rejecting such spatial limitations as exemplified by the Prioress and the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Accordingly, blending Henri Lefebvre’s ideas on the production of space with Victor Turner’s ideas about liminality, this article aims to discuss how medieval women challenged, through their spatial practices, the idea that women in the open space were defined as “the open space” through an analysis of the spatial practices of the Prioress and the Wife of Bath.

Keywords

• Spatial practices
• Patriarchal agoraphobia
• Chaucer
• the Prioress
• the Wife of Bath

ORTAÇAĞ KADINLARI VE ATAERKİL AGORAFOBİ: CHAUCER’IN BAŞ RAHİBESİ VE BATH’LI KADINI

Abstract

Mekânsal kısıtlamalar, ataerkil toplumların kadınların cinsiyetlerini ve cinselliklerini kontrol edebilmek için kullandıkları araçlar arasında yer almıştır. Aynı şekilde, Ortaçağ İngiltere’sinde de ataerkil toplum kadınların mekânsal pratikleri kontrol etmekteydi. Sadece seküler kadınlar değil dindar kadınlar da sosyal ve cinsel statülerine uygun olarak düzenlenmiş olan mekânsal kısıtlamalara tabiydiler. Ortaçağ’da manastırdaki dindar bir kadının hayatının merkezinde dış dünyaya kapanmış olmak yer alırken, seküler bir kadının köyünün ya da şehrinin sınırlarının dışına çıkması sert bir şekilde eleştirilirdi. Ataerkil agorafobi bu tür açık alandaki kadınları, cinsel hassasiyetlerini vurgulayacak şekilde “açık alan” olarak tanımlamaktaydı. Ancak, Chaucer’ın Canterbury Hikayeleri eserindeki Baş Rahibe ve Bath’lı Kadın karakterleri tarafından örneklendiği üzere, on dördüncü yüzyıl itibariyle hem seküler hem de dindar kadınların bu tür mekânsal kısıtlamaları reddetmeye başladıkları görülmektedir. Bu bağlamda bu makale, Henri Lefebvre’in mekânın üretimine dair fikirlerini Victor Turner’in eşiktelik konusundaki fikirleri ile harmanlayarak, Baş Rahibe ve Bath’lı Kadın’ın mekânsal pratiklerinin incelemesiyle, Ortaçağ kadınlarının mekânsal pratikleri aracılığıyla açık alandaki kadını “açık alan” olarak tanımlayan fikre nasıl karşı çıktıklarını tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Mekânsal pratikler
• Ataerkil agorafobi
• Chaucer
• Baş Rahibe
• Bath’lı Kadın

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