Becky McLaughlin is an associate professor of English at the University of South Alabama, where she teaches critical theory, film, and gender studies.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction, or A Long Preamble to a TaleChapter 1. The Prick of the Prioress, or Hysteria and Its HumorsChapter 2. Portrait of the Hysteric as a Young GirlChapter 3. Masochist as Miscreant Minister: The Parable of the Pardoner’s Perverse PerformanceChapter 4. Confessing AnimalsChapter 5. Before There Was Sade, There Was Chaucer: Sadistic Sensibility in the Tales of the Man of Law, the Clerk, and the PhysicianChapter 6. Sadomasochism for (Neurotic) DummiesChapter 7. The Reeve’s Paranoid Eye, or The Dramatics of "Bleared" SightChapter 8. Farting and Its (Dis)contents, or Call Me AbsolonChapter 9: RetractorBibliographyIndex