In the genre of medieval chivalric romances, there exists a codified pattern of exchange between knights in shining armour and the distressed damsels whom they rescue. This exchange is the basis of the "gendered economy," in which both sides of the exchange have as "commodities" something the other needs. Damsels need protection from threats to their safety and chastity. Knights need opportunities for displaying their prowess and for gaining renown, and often for gaining estates and wives. Because the chivalric romances are, in part, means for justifying knighthood's claims to social and economic superiority, the knights in these tales must be able to provide protection or some other aid which the damsels cannot provide for themselves.
This study explores how three ME chivalric romances, Beues of Hamtoun, The Sowdone of Babylone, and the Alysaundir episode in Malory, initially appear to thwart these generic conventions by presenting damsels who rescue themselves (or others) through physically aggressive actions which would traditionally be reserved for knights. Chaucer employs and extends the conventions of the gendered economy in two of his Canterbury Tales, the Knight's Tale and the Franklin's Tale, tales which might have been expected to challenge such conventions. What this thesis demonstrates is the persistent nature of the gendered economy. Of these five texts, only the Sowdone of Babylone actually subverts it.
This study, based on both genre and gender issues, also recognizes the narrative influences of other literary and cultural elements on the conventions of the gendered economy. The machinery ofthe gendered economy within each ofthese five romances is illuminated by comparative textual evidence of cultural attitudes from travel literature, patristic commentary, parallel and source texts, manuscript illuminations, legends of Troy, literary motifs, and exempla collections.