French 320 - WOMEN WRITERS OF MIDDLE AGES

The voices of medieval women juxtaposed with the voices of men seeking to defame them (the antifeminist tradition) and those raised to defend them. How did women writers of the Middle Ages engage with the conventions and rhetoric of misogyny? What genres did women practice and in what way did they transform those genres for their own purposes? To what extent did women writers question the traditional gender roles of their society? How did they represent female characters in their works and what do their statements about authorship reveal about their understanding of themselves as champions of women? Readings will include the love letters of Heloise, the lais and fables of Marie de France, the songs of the trobairitz and women trouveres, and the writings of Christine de Pizan, alongside excerpts from the major antifeminist tracts of the Middle Ages.