The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan's "Cité des Dames"The first professional female writer, Christine de Pizan (1363-1431) was widowed at age twenty-five and supported herself and her family by enlisting powerful patrons for her poetry. Her Livre de la Cité des Dames (1405) is the earliest European work on women's history by a woman. An allegorical poem that revises masculine traditions, it asserts and defends the authority of women in general and of its author in particular. In this generously illustrated book, Maureen Quilligan provides a persuasive and penetrating interpretation of the Cité. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Name of the Author | 11 |
The Authority of Female Subjectivity | 69 |
The Politics of Prophecy | 104 |
The Politics of Martyrdom | 189 |
5 The Practice of History | 246 |
| 285 | |
Other editions - View all
The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan's Cité Des Dames Maureen Quilligan Limited preview - 1991 |
The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan's Cité Des Dames Maureen Quilligan No preview available - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
Aeneas allegory Amazon argues argument auctores Boccaccio British Library canon Carmentis Chaucer Chris Christine de Pizan Christine's Christine's text Cité des dames city of ladies cleres femmes cultural Cumaean sibyl Dante Dante's daughter death Delany Dido discourse Droitture emphasis Epistre Othéa father female authority female body feminist figures of authority France French gender genre grant husband incest incipit Isabeau Isabeau of Bavaria Jean de Meun Jehanne Justice king Kristeva language legend literary Livre long estude Lucretia male martyrdom martyrology martyrs masculine Medieval miniature misogynist misogyny mulieribus claris narrate narrative Ovid pagan Paris poem political position prophecy queen readers Reason relationship rewrite Roman Rome Rose saints scene scripted Semiramis Semiramis's sense sexual sibyls social speak specifically story textual tine tion torture tradition trans translation Trésor University Press Vincent of Beauvais Vincent's Virgil virtue voice wife woman women writing