Scolding women: Cultural knowledge and the criminalization of speech in late medieval England, 1300--1500.

摘要

This dissertation examines the shifting relationships among speech, gender, and power in late medieval England. After the Black Death of the mid-fourteenth century, I argue, concern about the power of speech intensified. Old categories of 'dangerous' speech were rearticulated and expanded, and new categories emerged. Among these "sins of the tongue" was the crime of 'scolding', which typically involved loud, angry speech deemed obnoxious or disruptive. Drawing on court records (especially from the town of Middlewich), artistic remains, and literary representations, I argue that scolding played a much more central role in late medieval popular life than historians have recognized.;While the concept of scolding existed in literature from the late 1200s, alleged scolds did not face court prosecution until the second half of the fourteenth century. Court records detailing prosecutions suggest that interpretations of what constituted scolding varied widely over time and place. Some elements of the offense, however, seemed more critical to its construction than others, and foremost among these was that excessive or troublesome speech was a "womanly" vice. Women's propensity for excessive speech had long been the subject of misogynist texts, but resentment of women's oral power intensified during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In most late medieval jurisdictions, between 75 and 95 per cent of accused scolds were women.;The relationship among speech, gender, and power was also complicated by marital status and social status. While female speech was always considered illicit in a general sense, it was both more legitimate and more dangerous at some points in women's lifecycles than at others. Similarly, social status played a critical role in the construction of scolding, even though alleged scolds were drawn from all social. groups below that of the gentry.;Scolding proved a remarkably resilient legal and cultural category, surviving as a punishable crime into the early nineteenth century. While marital and social status were important to the development of the concept of scolding, gender ultimately proved more central to its perpetuation. The crime of scolding thus offers a window into the complex and changing dynamic of late medieval attitudes toward speech, gender, and power.