2020-21 Academic Catalog

Acknowledged by contemporaries as one of the leading intellects of her time, Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364-ca. 1431) was an author of unusual literary range, resilience, and perceptiveness. In addition to composing romances, poetry, quasi-autobiographical works, royal biography, and political theory, she became one of the most articulate critics of the patriarchy and misogyny of her world and a critical voice in defense of female capability. Using Christine's writings along with other contemporary documents as a foundation, we will explore perceptions of gender, the analysis and resistance to misogyny, the ethics love and personal relations, and the exercise of patriarchal power (and resistance to it) in domestic and public spheres in late medieval France.