Melusine and Yde et Olive: Subversive Narrative Power in the Medieval Female Body

This paper delves into the representation of the female body in Medieval Literature, focusing on the texts of 'Melusine' and 'Yde et Olive'. The paper explores how these two texts represent bodily difference and transformation as a source of subversive narrative power. Rather than functioning merely as symbols of weakness or instability compared to the stable and coherent male body, the female bodies in these texts disrupt social and gender norms, generating new possibilities for identity and narrative authority.