“Ycomen of Cristen blood”: Racializing Christianity in Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article offers an extensive analysis of the phrase “ycomen of Cristen blood” (VII 497) in Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale in the context of medieval ideologies of racial Christianity. It argues that Chaucer is too skeptical of human reproduction as a means of transmitting traits between generations to fully endorse racializing Christianity, despite his racializations of Judaism and Islam in his poetry. Instead, this article reads Chaucer’s reference to Christian blood as a moment of race-making in progress, a particularly valuable opportunity for scholars to observe the incongruities and inconsistencies inherent in the process of ideological creation.