Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale and the Post-9/11 Crusade Mentality: Unearthing Historical Echoes in Modern Context

Abstract

This article offers a transtemporal reading of Geoffrey Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, situating the text within the ideological framework of crusading discourse in late 14th-century England while tracing its symbolic afterlife into post-9/11 political rhetoric. Drawing on Kathleen Davis's critique of periodization and Geraldine Heng's theory of the romance as a historical actant, the essay argues that Chaucer's narrative participates in a cultural logic of Manichean dualism that casts religious difference as metaphysical opposition. Through close readings of the tale's zoomorphic metaphors—especially the lamb, serpent, and scorpion—and the moral polarization between Custance and the Sultaness, the article demonstrates how the tale encodes a crusade mentality that continues to inform modern representations of Islam and Muslims. By placing Chaucer in dialog with figures such as George W. Bush, Bernard Lewis, and Samuel Huntington, as well as with contemporary critiques by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Riz Ahmed, the essay reveals the ideological durability of medieval allegory in justifying war, surveillance, and civilizational hierarchies. Ultimately, the article argues for a nonlinear understanding of medievalism as a rhetorical toolkit whose logics endure beyond the historical Middle Ages, challenging scholars to read across time in order to confront the persistent structures of racialized and religious exclusion.