Gender, writing, and performance : men defending women in late medieval France, 1440-1538 / Helen J. Swift.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swift, Helen J., 1979-

Contributor:

Class of 1932 Fund.

Series:

Oxford modern languages and literature monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--To 1500--History and criticism.

French literature.

French literature--16th century--History and criticism.

Women in literature.

French literature--Male authors--History and criticism.

French literature--Male authors.

Physical Description:

xv, 285 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2008]

Summary:

This book explores the poetics of literary defences of women written by men in late-medieval and early-modern France. It fills an important lacuna in studies of this polemic in imaginative literature by bridging the gap between Christine de Pizan and a later generation of women writers and male, Neo-Platonist writers who have recently all received due critical attention. Whereas male-authored defences composed between 1440 and 1538 have previously been dismissed as 'insincere' or 'mere intellectual games', Swift formulates reading strategies to overcome such critical stumbling blocks and engage with the particular rhetorical and historical contexts of these works. Edited and as yet unedited texts by Martin Le Franc, Jacques Milet, Pierre Michault, and Jean Bouchet-catalogues of women, allegorical narratives, and debate poems-are brought together and analysed in detail for the first time in order to explore, for example, how such works address the misogynistic spectre of Jean de Meun's Roman de la rose.

The book seeks to understand the contemporary popularity of the case for women (la querelle des femmes) as literary subject matter. It investigates the publication history across this period, from manuscript to print, of Le Franc's Le Champion des dames. Swift further aims to show how these texts hold interest for modern audiences. A nexus of theoretical concerns centred on performance-Judith Butler's gender performativity, Derrida's re-working of Austin's linguistic performativity through spectrality, and dramatic performance-is enlisted to articulate the interpretative engagement expected by querelle writers of their audience. The reading strategies proposed foster a nuanced and enriched perspective on the question of a male author's 'sincerity' when writing in defence of women.

Contents:

Conventions of Transcription xiii

1 Haunting Text and Paratext: Performing Intertextuality in Querelle Debates 18

Performing intertextuality: the dynamics of rewriting 22

Reading intertextuality: a 'spectropoetic' approach 33

Rewriting the Rose: negotiating with spectres 46

From critical reading to contemporary reception: text and paratext 68

Haunted images: writing against the ghost 74

Conclusion: the dynamics of intertextual performance 89

Plates 91

2 Performing Conflict: The Drama of Debate 100

Imagining debate: verbal attack and verbal display 109

Debate as dramatic dialogue: orality and actio 118

The theatre of debate: the page as stage 126

The theatre of debate: the forensic stage 131

Deferring verdicts: debating guilt and creating debate 145

Epilogue: the case for women in context 154

Plates 157

3 Representing Women in the Querelle des femmes 172

Writer and patron: presentation and representation 175

L'Opposition masculin-feminin: wearing cultural significations 194

'Becoming' woman: contextualizing gender identity 217

Conclusion: representation as negotiation 221

Conclusion: A New Shelf-Life? 227

Appendix 1 Chronologies of Querelle des femmes Texts 247

A Chronology of primary texts 247

B Early printed editions of querelle des femmes texts 249

Appendix 2 Lists of Manuscripts, Incunables, and Early Printed Editions 251

A Manuscripts and early printed editions of Le Champion des dames 251

B Manuscripts and early printed editions of the French translations of Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris 252.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-275) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.

ISBN:

9780199232239

0199232237

OCLC:

176819184