Transcript Mapping the Crusades

Chaucer’s Orient:
Medieval Orientalism?
The World According to
The Wife of Bath?
God helpe me so, I was to hym as kynde
As any wyf from Denmark unto Ynde
(WBPro 823-24)
Betwixt this and the mount of Kaukasous
(WBT 1140)
That is betwixe the est and eke the west
(WBT 1140)
“Auffrike, Europe, and asye,”
(House of Fame 1339)
Mappa Mundi
The Lambeth Map(1350-70)
Tripartite or T-O map
‘paradysus’
Jerusalem
East meets West
during the Middle Ages
Three Primary Points of Contact
Trade
Pilgrimage
The Crusades
The Crusades
•Third Crusade 1188: England involved
•Crusades “ended” in 1272
•Individual crusades continued during
Chaucer’s lifetime
Crusading Romances
Promoted the idea of Western/
Christian superiority over the
Eastern/Muslim (pagan)
world through either…
•the conversion of Islamic knights
•the destruction of Arabian armies
One of these texts, the popular
Sir Beues, was known to Chaucer
as he apparently imitated the meter
Chaucer Mapping the
Crusades
• “Alisaundre,” in Egypt
• “Lyeys,” in Turkey
• “Palatye” in Anatolia
Knight’s
campaigning
• Surrye (Syria) - first lines of the Man of Law’s
Tale
• the Holy Land – origin of the relic mentioned in
the Reeve’s Tale
East-West Trade
European Trade with the East
• Normans in Italy & First Crusade
• Successful until 15th century
Chaucer’s Family & Community
Chaucer’s Travels in Europe
• France, Spain, Italy
• Indirectly affected by Boccaccio’s
perceptions
Exchange of Knowledge &
Chaucer
Eastern Literature
• 1001 Nights: frame structure (Tales, Decameron)
• Squire’s Prologue &Tale
Medicine
Doctor of Physik:
“Wel knew he the olde […]
Haly, Razis, and Aycen”
(GP 31-2)
Astronomy/Astrology
• Treatise on Astrolabe
• Franklin’s Tale
Medieval Orientalism
Travel Literature
• Jehan de Mandeville
• Marco Polo
French Romances
• Cléomadès Cycle (Adenès le Rois)
• Méliacin (Girard d’Amiens)
Boccaccio
Squire’s
Tale
“Domesticating the Exotic”
& Oriental Eroticism
Squire’s Tale
• Eastern setting & details
• European characters & romance
Legend of Good Women: Cleo & Dido
• Boccaccio as sources for both
• Sexually excessive characterization but…
• Chaucer is less malicious, more
ambiguous
Works Cited/Consulted
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D.
Benson. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1987.
Ganim, John M. Medievalism and Orientalism.
Heffernan, Carol F. The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval
Romance. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, 2003.
Lynch, Kathryn L. Chaucer’s Cultural Geography. New
York: Routledge, 2002.
Metlitzki, Dorothee. The Matter of Araby in Medieval
England. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977.
Westrem, Scott D. “Geography and Travel.”A Companion
to Chaucer. Ed. Peter Brown. Malden: Blackwell, 2007.