Uncertain Labor

Abstract

Chapter 3 approaches reproduction from the medieval scientific perspective of two contraries coming together, with the active male spirit working upon the passive female matter. Analyzing the Second Nun’s Tale and the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, this chapter explores the way in which Chaucer imagined alternative strategies of conception. In the former, the Second Nun calls upon the Virgin Mary to partner her in a devotional practice of production; in the latter, the Canon and his Yeoman both attempt to create without the necessary contraries, bringing similar materials together in failed alchemical experiments that are distinguished by the queerness of their reproductive strategy. There are ways, Chaucer writes, to turn human labor into an authoritative generation, but one must partner with God in order to effect this triumph.