Abstract
Disruptive female laughter, often accompanied by mockery and trickery, has a major presence in medieval Pseudo-Ovidian Latin works, being also a frequent motif in the works of such diverse vernacular writers as the English Geoffrey Chaucer, the Castilian Juan Ruiz, and the Italian Giovanni Boccaccio. The focal aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse this distinctive strand within medieval comic literatures, rooted in both Ovid's treatment of women’s laughter and jocular speech, and the reception of these Ovidian tropes in the Later Middle Ages. Medieval writers considered here are characterized by their special attentiveness to Ovid’s humour and paid particular attention to the parodic and self-parodic use of female laughter and mockery in Ovidian poetry. A central argument posed by this research is that medieval Ovidianism stimulated the cheerful depiction of laughing women who apparently are not intent on pleasing men, but rather on pleasing themselves. Furthermore, female hilarity can go even to the extreme of provoking the deflation of the poet's authorial persona and authority. Likewise, in some writers such as Chaucer and Boccaccio the use of female laughter extends beyond self-parody to challenge and humorously subvert antifeminist literature of their day.
Among the Ovidian heritage explored in this thesis, Ovid’s portrayal of Anna Perenna in Fasti 3.675-696 stands out. The goddess is depicted as an old celestial procuress who tricks Mars by turning his infatuation with Minerva into an occasion of self-indulgence. The vignette finishes with the old goddess laughing at the duped god. Anna’s burlesque scene dialogues with a number of medieval narratives such as the Pseudo-Ovidian De Vetula, Ruiz's Libro de Buen Amor, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. In this respect, the thesis provides an in-depth analysis on the importance of Ovid's Anna in shaping the medieval comic character of the go-between, with a special focus on her triumphal laughter, generally expressing delight at the disgrace of a man, which is commonly heard throughout these late medieval works.