Approaches to Teaching the Works of Christine de Pizan
- Editor: Andrea Tarnowski
- Pages: 280
- Published: 2018
- ISBN: 9781603293266 (Hardcover)
- ISBN: 9781603293273 (Paperback)
“This book is a fascinating read that highlights many diverse realities about Christine in her Parisian milieu and helps make connections between historical, cultural, religious, personal, gendered, and pedagogical aspects of her amazing written production.”
—Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching
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.
Barbara K. Altmann
Mark Aussems
Patricia E. Black
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski
A. E. B. Coldiron
Theresa Coletti
Daisy Delogu
Susan J. Dudash
Julia Simms Holderness
David F. Hult
Roberta L. Krueger
Mary Gibbons Landor
Nadia Margolis
Deborah McGrady
Cary J. Nederman
Christine Reno
Jeff Rider
Karen Robertson
Benjamin M. Semple
Ellen M. Thorington
Lori J. Walters
David Joseph Wrisley
Preface (vii)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Editions and Translations (3)
Comprehensive List of Christine de Pizan’s Works (8)
The Instructor’s Library (16)
Aids to Teaching Christine de Pizan Online (23)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction: Christine de Pizan, Building with Books (29)
Gender and Self-Representations: Cultural Contexts
Becoming a Man: Christine de Pizan, 1390 to 1400 (34)
Christine and Her Audience (42)
Visions of History in the Works of Christine de Pizan (50)
Christine’s Consoling Memory (59)
On Hands: Visual Narrative in Christine de Pizan’s Manuscripts (69)
France’s First Literary Quarrel: Le débat sur Le roman de la rose (82)
Christine’s Kingly Ideal: Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V (92)
Ethical Architecture in the Cité des dames (101)
Christine across the Disciplines
Teaching the Concept of Virtue in The Book of the City of Ladies (109)
Governing the Body Politic: Christine’s Political Advice (119)
Christine de Pizan’s Ballades: Lyrical Text and Its Musical Context (127)
Explicating Christine’s Poetics: Pallas Athena and the Apple of Discord (135)
Christine de Pizan’s Lyric Poetry and the Question of Intertextuality (146)
The Literary Geographies of Christine de Pizan (156)
Classroom Contexts
Christine and the Canon: Great Books and Worthy Women (164)
Reading The Treasure of the City of Ladies with Women’s Studies Students (172)
Teaching Christine de Pizan in a Department of English (179)
Teaching the Early Modern English Translations of Christine de Pizan (188)
Christine de Pizan and the Moral Education of Women: Teaching Le livre des trois vertus (197)
Christine’s Prologue: An Approach to the Queen’s Manuscript (207)
The Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc and the Poet’s Passion (218)
Notes on Contributors (229)
Survey Participants (233)
Works Cited and Consulted (235)
Index (267)
“This volume draws on the expertise of some of the foremost scholars in the field, and its well-chosen selection of new essays places Christine de Pizan’s work within a broad spectrum of pedagogical contexts.”
—Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto
