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This book examines evolution of medieval patience literature from a focus on male and female sufferers to a focus on female suffers in particular. Using feminist revisions of genre-theory, Waugh analyses the concept of counterfeit consciousness in the works of Margery Kempe and Chaucer among others.

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Table of Contents List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Contents Introduction: Clarissimum in Feminis The Female Patience Figure as Speaker The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Speaker The Female Patience Figure as Counterfeit The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Empress The Female Patience Figure at an Extreme The Female Patience Figure as Shrine Index

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Robin Waugh is an associate professor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University.

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