1. Chaucer’s Orient: Medieval Orientalism?

2. 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 )
Betwixt this and the mount of Kaukasous
(WBT 1140)
That is betwixe the est and eke the west

3. “Auffrike, Europe, and asye,” (House of Fame 1339) Mappa Mundi

4. The Lambeth Map(1350-70) Tripartite or T-O map
‘paradysus’
Jerusalem

5. East meets West during the Middle Ages
Three Primary Points of Contact
Trade
Pilgrimage
The Crusades

6. The Crusades Third Crusade 1188: England involved
Crusades “ended” in 1272
Individual crusades continued during Chaucer’s lifetime

7. 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

8. Chaucer Mapping the Crusades
“Alisaundre,” in Egypt
“Lyeys,” in Turkey Knight’s
“Palatye” in Anatolia 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Medieval Orientalism Travel Literature French Romances Boccaccio
Jehan de Mandeville
Marco Polo
French Romances
Cléomadès Cycle (Adenès le Rois) Squire’s
Méliacin (Girard d’Amiens) Tale
Boccaccio

12. “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

13. Works Cited/Consulted
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton, Ganim, John M. Medievalism and Orientalism. Heffernan, Carol F. The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, Lynch, Kathryn L. Chaucer’s Cultural Geography. New York: Routledge, Metlitzki, Dorothee. The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. New Haven: Yale UP, Westrem, Scott D. “Geography and Travel.”A Companion to Chaucer. Ed. Peter Brown. Malden: Blackwell, 2007.