Rosaleen Montague-Vaughan
University of Toronto
Statius’ epics establish a relationship between heroism and gender. For Statius, feminisation involves not just dressing and moving like a girl, but also living in a female environment, separated from war. He subsequently opens a debate about whether gender is inborn or nurtured, and whether there is space for feminisation in the portrayal of the hyper-masculine hero of a martial epic. In this paper, I will argue that Statius’ two epics – the Achilleid and Thebaid – are hugely influential on the way gender and genre intersect in the Chivalric Romances of the High Middle Ages. I will firstly prove Statius’ prominence in the period through manuscript circulation and the variety of textual material inspired by Statius in the High Middle Ages. I will then explore the relationship between war, armour, and masculinity in both the martial epic and chivalric romance, comparing Statius’s works to the Roman d’Eneas, Roman de Thebes, and lais of Marie de France. The main focus of my paper will be on the Roman de Silence so as to draw the conclusion that an unstable gender identity can threaten to undermine the ‘masculine’ genres of epic and romance.