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From the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries,
European women emerged from the silence of the Middle
Ages to become eloquent, forceful participants in the
mainstream of civilization. At first, primarily those
authorized by their holiness – nuns, mystics, tertiaries,
anchoresses – spoke of their visions and their mission.
Then, triggered by the first publication in 1361 of
On Famous Women by the Italian author Giovanni
Boccaccio, there followed a stream of works, by both men
and women, defending the targets of a misogynistic
tradition embedded in the respected disciplines of law,
medicine, philosophy, and theology. By the early 1500s,
the availability of the print medium and the maturation
of the European vernaculars permitted women authors to
explore verse and prose fiction, even as the querelle
des femmes (“the debate about women”) soared to its
climax in the first half of the seventeenth century. By
this date, writing by women and about women had moved
from periphery to center of European culture, and the
major issues pertaining to women’s nature and capacity
had been addressed. These were the foundations on which
Mary Wollstonecraft erected her manifesto of 1792,
challenging her contemporaries to recognize the due
rights of woman even as the French Revolution, then
still in progress, established the rights of man.
This course examines a few of the key works, originally
in Latin and four European vernaculars, that trace this
story. In addition to reading in common the works
listed below (weekly readings will average about 100
pages), students will prepare historiographical essays
(15-25 pages) based on at least six monographs (or the
equivalent), or similar project with the instructor’s
approval, due on the date of the scheduled final
examination.
Many of the assigned readings are available in
inexpensive editions; the library has been asked to
place all works on reserve; some smaller selections will
be available on E-RES; and one work is available in full
online. Online bibliographies of relevant secondary
works are available on this website
here (from my Renaissance
biblliography) and
here (the OVIEME
bibliography).
Bibliographies have been updated as of July 13, 2006.
Syllabus
Week 1 -- 2
-- 3 -- 4 --
5 -- 6 --
7 -- 8 --
9 -- 10 --
11 -- 12
-- 13 -- 14
Week 1
Introduction
Week 2
Holy women: Hildegard,
Heloise, and their heirs (12th-15th centuries
Emilie Zum Brunn & Georgette Epiney-Burgard. Women
Mystics in Medieval Europe..Trans. Sheila Hughes.
St. Paul MN: Paragon House, 1989. Pp. 1-36. ERES
The Letters of Abelard
and Heloise.
Trans. Betty Radice. Rev. ed. Penguin, 1974, 2003. Pp.
9-17; 47-55; 63-71; 93-111.
Week 3
Giovanni Boccaccio,
scholar and storyteller, On Famous Women
(1361-1375)
Giovanni Boccaccio. Famous Women. Trans.
Virginia Brown. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press,
2003. Dedication; Preface; lives of Semiramis,
Medea, Penthesilea, Helen, Dido, Sappho, Artemisia,
Sempronia, Hortensia, Cleopatra, Agrippina (mother of
Nero), Proba, Zenobia, Constance
TOP
Week 4
Christine de Pisan,
first feminist, and the City of Ladies (1405)
Christine de Pisan. Book of the City of Ladies.
Trans. Earl Jeffrey Richards. Rev. ed. Persea Books,
1998. Part One, chapters 1-17, 19-21, 29-30, 32,
42; Part Two, chapters 31, 32, 55-56, 65; Part Three,
chapters 3, 10
Week 5
Joan of Arc and Margery
Kempe: women of the people (15th century)
Regine Pernoud, et al. Joan of Arc: Her Story.
Ed. Bonnie Wheeler. Trans. Jeremy duQuesnay Adams. New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. 103-37,
247-64, and passim.
Book of Margery Kempe.
Trans. Barry Windeatt. Penguin 1986. Proem, Chapters
1-11, and passim.
Week 6
Francesco Barbaro,
Venetian nobleman and statesman, On Marriage
(1415)
Francesco Barbaro. "On Wifely Duties" (book 2 of On
Marriage). In Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt,
The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government
and Society. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1978. Pp. 189-228. ERES
TOP
Week 7
Women humanists: Isotta
Nogarola and Laura Cereta (15th century)
Isotta Nogarola. Complete Writings. Trans.
Margaret L. King and Diana Robin. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 139-158. ERES
Laura Cereta. Collected Letters of a Renaissance
Feminist. Trans. Diana Robin. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1997. Pp. 63-86. ERES
Week 8
Men defend women:
Agrippa, Erasmus, Vives (16th century)
Henricus Cornelius Agrippa. Declamation on the
Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex. Trans.
Albert Rabil, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1996. Pp. 39-97.
Erasmus on Women.
Ed. Erika Rummel. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1996. Pp. 25-34; 174-179; 187-229.
Juan Luis Vives. The Education of a Christian Woman:
A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Trans. Charles Fantazzi.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Pp. 53-86.
ERES
Week 9
Women poets and
storytellers: Colonna, Franco, Marguerite de Navarre (16th
century)
Vittoria Colonna. Sonnets for Michelangelo.
Trans. Abigail Brundin. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2005. Pp. 57-59, 63, 73, 77, 85, 91. ERES
Veronica Franco. Poems and Selected Letters.
Trans. Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Pp. 32-41, 197-211. ERES
Marguerite de Navarre. Heptameron. Trans. Paul
A. Chilton. Penguin, 1984. Selections.
TOP
Week 10
Women and the
Reformation: Morata, Dentiere, Zell (16th
century)
Olimpia Morata. The Complete Writings of an Italian
Heretic. Trans. Holt N. Parker. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 106-118,
126-141, 174-177. ERES
Marie Dentiere. Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre,
etc. Trans. Mary B. McKinley. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2005. Pp. 51-87.
Katharina Schütz Zell. Church Mother: The Writings of
a Protestant Reformer in Sixteenth-Century Germany.
Trans. Elsie McKee. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2006. Pp. 56-82. ERES
Week 11
Moderata Fonte asserts
Women’s Worth
(1601)
Moderata
Fonte. Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed
Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men. Trans.
Virginia Cox. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1997. Pp. 43-117.
Week
12
Female equality:
Gournay, Schurman, Cavendish
(17th century)
Marie le Jars de Gournay. Apology for the Woman
Writing. Trans. Richard Hillman and Colette Quesnel.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Pp. 73-95.
ERES
Anna Maria van Schurman. Whether a Christian Woman
Should Be Educated. Trans. Joyce L. Irwin.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp. 25-37.
ERES
Margaret Cavendish. The Blazing World and Other
Writings. Ed. Kate Lilley. Penguin 1994.
Selections. Alternatively: online excerpt at
http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/blaze.htm
TOP
Week 13
Oroonoko:
Aphra Behn, gender, and
slavery (1688)
Aphra
Behn. Oroonoko. Online at
http://eserver.org/fiction/oroonoko/ ; downloaded
version available at this website - click
here.
Week
14
Mary Wollstonecraft and
the rights of woman (1792)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman: An Authoritative Text, etc. Ed. Carol H.
Poston. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987.
Chapters 1-4.
TOP
Last update:
10/13/06
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