Women as Objects of Exchange in the Man of Law\u27s Tale and Venus

This paper examines gender as a representation and construct that provides a lens through which to examine appropriation, in particular, of female bodies in texts. In Geoffrey Chaucer\u27s Man of Law\u27s Tale, written around 1386, the exchange of stories and women is represented as a trade of physical goods. The theme of women as objects is also examined in the modern play Venus (1989), by Suzan-Lori Parks. Both works highlight the role of men in the manipulation and appropriation of women as objects of exchange. I found that Chaucer denies Custance any authority, she is a blank woman upon which men\u27s desire[s] [are] projected (Dinshaw 110). By contrast, in Venus, Parks combats the white, male dominance within the content of her story by allowing for a re-figuring of the body of text, and metaphorically Venus\u27s body