Comparative Literature 229 - THE RENAISSANCE GENDER DEBATE

In "La Querelle des Femmes" medieval and Renaissance writers (1350-1650) took on misogynist ideas from the ancient world and early Christianity: woman as failed man, irrational animal, fallen Eve. Writers debated women's sexuality (insatiable or purer than men's?), marriage (the hell of nagging wives or the highest Christian state?), women's souls (nonexistent or subtler than men's?), female education (a danger or a social necessity?). In the context of the social and cultural changes fuelling the polemic, we will analyze the many literary forms it took, from Chaucer's Wife of Bath to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, story collections such as Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron, women writers' dialogues, such as Moderata Fonte's The Worth of Women, and pamphlets from the popular press. Some attention to the battle of the sexes in the visual arts.