Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan

Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Earl Jeffrey Richards
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780820313078
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Principally known for her revolutionary conception of the equality of women set forth in Le Livre de la Cite des Dames (1405) - the first defence of women by a woman - Christine de Pizan is only now beginning to receive the critical attention she deserves. Born in Venice but reared at the court of French King Charles V, she helped transmit the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to France - thereby becoming a bridge between the two most important late medieval vernacular cultures. Christine was also in the forefront of the humanistic attack on medieval literature and thought, a stance that made her a pivotal figure in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance in France.

Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan

Reinterpreting Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Earl Jeffrey Richards
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780820313078
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
Principally known for her revolutionary conception of the equality of women set forth in Le Livre de la Cite des Dames (1405) - the first defence of women by a woman - Christine de Pizan is only now beginning to receive the critical attention she deserves. Born in Venice but reared at the court of French King Charles V, she helped transmit the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio to France - thereby becoming a bridge between the two most important late medieval vernacular cultures. Christine was also in the forefront of the humanistic attack on medieval literature and thought, a stance that made her a pivotal figure in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance in France.

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Barbara K. Altmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100014352X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Christine de Pizan wrote voluminously, commenting on various aspects of the late-medieval society in which she lived. Considered by many to be the first French woman of letters, Christine and her writing have been difficult to place ever since she began putting her thoughts on the page. Although her work was neglected in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, there has been a eruption of Christine studies in recent decades, making her the perfect subject for a casebook. This volume serves as a useful guide to contemporary research exploring Christine's life and work as they reflected and influenced her socio-political milieu.

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Angus J. Kennedy
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1855661020
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description


Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Charlotte Cooper-Davis
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789144418
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The first popular biography of a pioneering feminist thinker and writer of medieval Paris. The daughter of a court intellectual, Christine de Pizan dwelled within the cultural heart of late-medieval Paris. In the face of personal tragedy, she learned the tools of the book trade, writing more than forty works that included poetry, historical and political treatises, and defenses of women. In this new biography—the first written for a general audience—Charlotte Cooper-Davis discusses the life and work of this pioneering female thinker and writer. She shows how Christine de Pizan’s inspiration came from the world around her, situates her as an entrepreneur within the context of her times and place, and finally examines her influence on the most avant-garde of feminist artists, through whom she is slowly making a return into mainstream popular culture.

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Christine de Pizan

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Andrea Tarnowski
Publisher: Modern Language Association
ISBN: 1603293280
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
A prolific poet and a protofeminist, Christine de Pizan worked within a sophisticated late medieval court culture and formed an identity as an authority on her society's preoccupations with religion, politics, and morality. Her works address various aspects of misogyny, the appropriate actions of rulers, and the ethical framework for social conduct. In addition to gaining a readership in fifteenth-century France, Christine's works influenced writers in Tudor England and were identified by twentieth-century readers as important contributions both to the emergence of a professional literary class and to the intellectual climate that gave rise to early modern Europe. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," surveys the editions in Middle French, translations into modern French and English, and the many scholarly resources and critical reactions of the past fifty years. Part 2, "Approaches," provides insights into various aspects of Christine's works that can be explored with students, from considerations of genre and form to the themes of virtue, history, and memory. Teachers of French, English, world literature, and women's studies will find useful ideas throughout the volume.

The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan

The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan PDF Author: Kate Langdon Forhan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351883941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Few medieval or Renaissance political writers, male or female, wrote more works on politics than Christine de Pizan; none of them addressed audiences so varied in class or gender. Yet until now there has been no comprehensive full-length study of Christine de Pizan's political thought. With The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan, Kate Forhan rectifies this oversight, situating de Pizan in the history of political thought while discussing traditional concerns of political theorists, such as justice, obligation, law, equality, and just war. Forhan also addresses the question of whether Pizan's work is original or derivative; whether she is a theorist or "merely" a political writer. Between 1400 and 1429, at a time of great civil strife in France, Christine de Pizan wrote ten books for the instruction and guidance of those engaged in political life. Her theory is focused on a "politics of inclusion," which validates the essential contribution of each member of the body politic to the whole, despite socially and politically mandated difference of class, nationality, and gender-ideas not without significance to the modern era. As Forhan demonstrates through analysis of her work, the thought of Christine de Pizan has true relevance for modern times. First, hers was a society in transition: new class structures, new occupations, and new aspirations were appearing behind the crumbling structures of the late medieval world. Secondly, Christine de Pizan was an outsider; a woman in a world dominated by men, an Italian in France, a member of the "meritocracy" at a court that was rigidly hierarchical. Her "difference" gave her the perspective to observe her society objectively. Her personal vulnerability allowed her to see politics more clearly, as those who are most vulnerable might see our own. Thirdly, she was a shrewd observer in a country that was emerging as a nation-state, where new concepts and practices of law, justice, administration, and politics in general were in the process of development. This book will be of interest to political theorists and political scientists; medieval historians; historians of women and gender; and scholars of comparative literature.

Christine de Pizan's Advice for Princes in Middle English Translation

Christine de Pizan's Advice for Princes in Middle English Translation PDF Author: Misty Schieberle
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
ISBN: 1580444741
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
One of the most popular mirrors for princes, Christine de Pizan's Epistre Othea (Letter of Othea) circulated widely in England. Speaking through Othea, the goddess of wisdom and prudence, in the guise of instructing Hector of Troy, Christine advises rulers, defends women against misogyny, and articulates complex philosophical and theological ideals. This volume brings together for the first time the two late medieval English translations, Stephen Scrope's precise translation The Epistle of Othea and the anonymous Litel Bibell of Knyghthod, once criticized as a flawed translation. With substantial introductions and comprehensive explanatory notes that attend to literary and manuscript traditions, this volume contributes to the reassessment of how each English translator grappled with adapting a French woman's text to English social, political, and literary contexts. These new editions encourage a fresh look at how Christine's ideas fit into and influenced the English literary tradition.

Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France

Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France PDF Author: Elizabeth L'Estrange
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846861
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
First detailed reconstruction of Anne de Graville's library, establishing her as one of the most well-read and erudite poets of the period. In the 1520s, the French noblewoman Anne de Graville composed two poetic works, based on older, canonical, male-authored texts: Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida and Alain Chartier's Belle dame sans mercy. The first, the Beau roman, she offered to Claude, queen of France and wife of Francis I, and the second, the Rondeaux, to the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. With the pro-feminine spin of her rewritings, Anne developed the legacy of another woman writer from 100 years earlier, Christine de Pizan, by entering the on-going debate known as the querelle des femmes. Like Christine, Anne sought to redress the negative view of women found in much contemporary popular literature and to offer role models for both men and women at the contemporary court. This book is the first detailed reconstruction and interpretation of Anne's library and her collecting practice, showing how they relate to her own writings and her literary milieu. It also teases out her links to other women writers of the time interested in the querelle, such as Catherine d'Amboise and Margaret of Navarre. Paying close attention to literary, manuscript, and artistic sources, it establishes Anne's reputation as one of the most erudite poets of the period, and one keenly attuned to the position of women in society as well as to the political sensitivities of the French court.

An Anthology of Medieval Love Debate Poetry

An Anthology of Medieval Love Debate Poetry PDF Author:
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813070090
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
"An accurate, elegant rendering of major late-medieval texts, crucial to our understanding of the courtly tradition and of Chaucer. Ideal for classroom use."--William Calin, University of Florida "Elegant and graceful translations of the most important authors of the late Middle Ages; each work brings a new take on the topic of love. A superb resource for students and scholars in comparative literature and medieval studies."--Wendy Pfeffer, University of Louisville This very first anthology of medieval love debate poems--comprising five masterpieces of the genre--explores the many compelling mysteries raised by the experience of romantic love. Some have been translated into modern English for the first time. With wit, ingenuity, and humor, these poems suggest intriguing answers to what contemporary inquirers would call questions of gender and sexual politics: Who loves better, men or women? Are men or women more faithful in love? Are women obligated to reciprocate the attentions of an ardent male? What qualities in a lover do women most desire? The contributors provide a foundation for the love debate genre and medieval literary treatments of love, as well as pertinent facts of literary history and biographical details about the poets, whose work spans more than 100 years. The volume features works that have been recognized for centuries as central texts of the medieval tradition: Christine de Pizan's Debate of the Two Lovers, Alain Chartier's Debate of the Four Ladies, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women, and Guillaume de Machaut's Judgment of the King of Bohemia and Judgment of the King of Navarre. Each translation is appropriately annotated for student use. R. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University. Barbara K. Altmann is associate professor of French at the University of Oregon.

The Case for Women in Medieval Culture

The Case for Women in Medieval Culture PDF Author: Alcuin Blamires
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 019103729X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Misogyny is of course not the whole story of medieval discourse on women: medieval culture also envisaged a case for women. But hitherto studies of profeminine attitudes in that periods culture have tended to concentrate on courtly literature or on female visionary writings or on attempts to transcend misogyny by major authors such as Christine de Pizan and Chaucer. This book sets out to demonstrate something different: that there existed from early in the Middle Ages a corpus of substantial traditions in defence of women, on which the more familiar authors drew, and that this corpus itself consolidated strands of profeminine thought that had been present as far back as the patristic literature of the fourth century. The Case for Women surveys extant writings formally defending women in the Middle Ages; breaks new ground by identifying a source for profeminine argument in biblical apocrypha; offers a series of explorations of the background and circulation of central arguments on behalf of women; and seeks to situate relevant texts by Christine de Pizan, Chaucer, Abelard, and Hrotsvitha in relation to these arguments. Topics covered range from the privileges of women, and pro-Eve polemic, to the social and moral strengths attributed to women, and to the powerful modelsfrequently disruptive of patriarchal complacencypresented by Old and New Testament women. The contribution made by these emphases (which are not to be confused with feminism in a modern sense) to medieval constructions of gender is throughout critically assessed, and the book concludes by asking how far defenders were controlled by, or able to query, assumptions about what was natural (and therefore imagined inflexible) in gender theory.