Ellen L Friedrich (2013)

Insinuating Indeterminate Gender: A Castration Motif in Guillaume de Lorris's Romans de la rose

In: Castration and Culture in the Middle Ages, ed. by Larissa Tracy. D.S. Brewer, chap. 12.

Abstract

investigates the motif of castration in Guillaume’s poem, particularly by elucidating the meaning of a self-castrating beaver found on the marginalia of the opening page of one of the manuscripts.