796 Marion Turner and The Wife of Bath (Revisited)

In this episode of The History of Literature, host Jack Wilson revisits a conversation with Professor Marion Turner, the J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, about her groundbreaking book *The Wife of Bath: A Biography*. Turner explores how Geoffrey Chaucer’s creation—the Wife of Bath—has transcended her original literary context to become a cultural icon over 600 years. Rather than a mere character study, Turner frames her analysis as a biography, tracing the Wife’s evolution across centuries and examining how she has been interpreted, censored, and reimagined by writers, filmmakers, and readers from the 14th century to the present. The discussion delves into the historical context of medieval England, where women had more economic and social agency than often assumed, and how Chaucer’s character reflects and redefines that reality. Turner also challenges the myth of linear progress, revealing that the 20th century—particularly the 1970s—often treated the Wife of Bath with greater misogyny than earlier eras, exemplified by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s degrading cinematic portrayal. The episode concludes with a reflective hypothetical: if given the choice between speaking with Chaucer himself or an ordinary medieval woman, Turner chooses the latter, underscoring her commitment to recovering silenced female voices.