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This study focuses on the relationship between Old French verse romances and the women who formed a part of their audience, and challenges the commonly-held view that all courtly literature promoted the social welfare of the noblewomen to whom romances were dedicated or addressed. Using reader-response theory, feminist criticism and recent historical studies, Roberta Krueger provides close readings of a selection of texts, both well-known and less well-known, to show an intriguing variety of portrayals of women: misogynistic, idealizing and didactic. She suggests that romances not only taught their audiences idealized models of masculine and feminine behaviour (including a sophisticated underpinning of medieval women's loss of autonomy in the family, education and society during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries), but that many romances also invited their readers to criticise and to resist gender roles.

Poetry --- Old French literature --- Rôle selon le sexe dans la littérature --- Seksuele rolpatronen in de literatuur --- Sex role in literature --- 82:396 --- 840-1 "-/14" --- French poetry --- -Women --- -Women and literature --- -Romances --- -Sex role in literature --- Women --- -Human females --- Wimmin --- Woman --- Womon --- Womyn --- Females --- Human beings --- Femininity --- Chivalric romances --- Chivalry --- Courtly romances --- French romances --- Medieval romances --- Romances, French --- Romans courtois --- French literature --- Literature, Medieval --- Literature --- Literatuur en feminisme --- Franse literatuur: poëzie--?"-/14" --- History and criticism --- History --- -History --- Books and reading --- Romances --- Sex role in literature. --- Women and literature --- History and criticism. --- -Literatuur en feminisme --- 840-1 "-/14" Franse literatuur: poëzie--?"-/14" --- 82:396 Literatuur en feminisme --- -82:396 Literatuur en feminisme --- Human females --- To 1500 --- France --- Middle Ages, 500-1500 --- Women - France - History - Middle Ages, 500-1500. --- Women - France - Books and reading - History. --- Women and literature - France - History. --- Ecrivains et lecteurs --- Roman courtois français --- Poésie française --- Rôle selon le sexe --- Femmes --- Femmes et littérature --- Roman courtois --- Sexualité --- Dans la littérature --- Thèmes, motifs --- Avant 1500 --- Histoire et critique --- Livres et lecture --- Moyen-Age