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Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality
Marie de France; Breton lais; critical animal studies; ecofeminism
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La Femme Bisclavret: The Female Of The Species?, Alison Langdon
La Femme Bisclavret: The Female Of The Species?, Alison Langdon
Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality
Conventional humanist readings of Bisclavret approach the lai from an anthropocentric perspective, in which animal nature is merely an allegory for human nature. In such a reading, the werewolf protagonist is a foil for his much more beastly if wholly human wife, with the underlying assumption being that animal nature is something to be rejected. That the marker of Lady Bisclavret's bestial nature—her noselessness—is transmitted through the generations of only female descendants seems to echo medieval antifeminist truisms about female perfidy. However, approaching the lai from a critical animal studies perspective can help dismantle conventional assumptions about the privileged status …