Christine de Pizan’s Political Voice (Kalamazoo 2015)
The study of Christine de Pizan has become a well-established topic in medieval studies in the last few decades. Christine’s role in the querelle des femmes, her oversight of a large manuscript workshop, and her complex cultivation of networks of patronage have been the objects of protracted study. Christine’s intervention in contemporary politics has also received a good deal of recent attention.
This session seeks to examine the intersections of literary and political endeavors in Christine’s life and works. How did her biography of Charles V, for example, conceive of the French nation and perhaps influence the current monarch’s actions? How did her depictions of imagined communities of women affect actual political and social realities? Did her interventions in the querelle des femmes substantially shape attitudes towards the female sex, or did they merely spark a literary debate?
Papers are requested which respond to some of these questions in the broadest sense, or even discuss the difficulties inherent in attempting to determine the impact of literature on political, social, and historical realities. Papers might address time periods contemporary to or postdating Christine’s lifetime. Please send an abstract of 250-300 words to Anneliese Pollock Renck at anneliese.p.renck@bucknell.edu by September 1st, 2014
