To our twenty-first-century sensibility, it might seem intuitive that there were queer people in the Middle Ages. Historical and fictional examples include Edward II, suspected of engaging in homosexuality with the nobleman Piers Gaveston; Joan of Arc, who cross-dressed; St. Eugenia and St. Marina, religious professionals who crossed-dressed and lived as men in all-male monasteries; and Chaucer’s Pardoner, whom the author famously compares to “a geldyng [castrated horse] or a mare” (Chaucer, 1987, 34, l. 691). However, the specific forms, categories, and names for these premodern queers—such as “man”, “woman”, “homosexual”, “gay”, “lesbian”, or “transgender”, among others—do not always or necessarily coincide with those in our current moment. While it is…
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Citation: Kao, Wan-Chuan. "Queer Theory and Late Medieval England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 July 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19668, accessed 23 November 2024.]
