Assistant Professor of English Katherine Terrell published an article titled "Competing Gender Ideologies and the Limitations of Language in Le Roman de Silence" in the Winter 2008 (vol. 55) issue of Romance Quarterly. The article discusses an Old French romance whose heroine--named Silence--passes as male and becomes a preeminent knight and minstrel.
Terrell contends that in narrating the adventures of this character, the poem creates a radically unstable conception of gender that has implications not only for its portrayal of social gender roles but also for its use of gendered language. The heroine's name becomes emblematic of language's inability to fully represent its subject, and gendered language and gendered behavior emerge as mutually dependent sources of paradox that point to the limitations of both language and narrative.
Terrell contends that in narrating the adventures of this character, the poem creates a radically unstable conception of gender that has implications not only for its portrayal of social gender roles but also for its use of gendered language. The heroine's name becomes emblematic of language's inability to fully represent its subject, and gendered language and gendered behavior emerge as mutually dependent sources of paradox that point to the limitations of both language and narrative.
