Department
of Languages and Literatures
Arizona State University – Spring 2003
Mark Cruse, Ph. D.
French Women Writers: The Middle Age
The two most renowned women writers of the French Middle Ages are Marie de France (second half of the twelfth century) and Christine de Pizan (ca. 1364 - ca. 1430), whose contributions to French literature – and to western civilization – are invaluable. We will read Marie's Lais (retellings of traditional tales), and will focus on Marie's statements about literary production, her representation of intimacy, and her position between oral and written cultures.
Christine de Pizan 's Livre de la Cité des Dames , from which we will read excerpts, is a very different kind of work that recounts not love stories, but the lives of renowned women from the Bible, antiquity, and the Middle Ages. We will examine how Christine's encyclopedic presentation of women acts as both an instruction manual for virtuous conduct, and a compelling retort to misogynous discourse.
Our study of these authors will combine close reading of their work with a consideration of larger issues such as the development of courtly culture, the education of women in the Middle Ages, the role of women in the transmission of literature, and medieval attitudes toward women. markus.cruse@asu.edu
Sylvain Gallais , Ph. D.
Traditionnellement, la société française a offert peu de place à la femme. C'est au 19 e siècle que se produisent les changements les plus spectaculaires. Des femmes, soutenues par les intellectuels libéraux, se font alors entendre en fondant des journaux et des périodiques.
Dans le 20 e siècle français, femmes et hommes occupent de plus en plus à égalité la littérature, la poésie ou encore la philosophie, les arts, les professions, la vie politique. Après la guerre, Simone de Beauvoir publie le Deuxième sexe, où elle explique que c'est la société qui fait la femme et non la naissance. Malheureusement les mouvements féministes ne s'en inspireront pas. Nous verrons comment les analyses et revendications féministes ont évolué entre le milieu du 19 e et le milieu du 20 e siècle.
Traditionally, French society does not allow many roles to women, but the 19 th century witnessed the most dramatic changes. Some women, with the support of liberal intellectuals, raised their voices and founded newspapers and periodicals.
During the 20 th century, we see more than ever women writing in literature, poetry or philosophy on the same level as men, and going into arts, all occupations and politics. After WW II, Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex in which she makes clear that women are not born, but made by society. Feminists in the second half of the century have not built on her work; nor have they been inspired by it. We will discover how feminist analysis and protests evolved between the middle of the 19 th and the middle of the 20 th century. sylvain.gallais@asu.edu
Aleksandra Gruzinska. Ph.D.
Mme de Charrière’s Letters from Mistress Henley represents the French 18th century and the epistolary genre and the travelogue. We will approach her novel from the point of view of the “Domestic Revolution” and the “refashioning of women’s sexual and domestic conduct.” As for the epistolary dialogue between Gustave Flaubert and George Sand, it provides an insight from two private citizens on two historical events of major consequences, the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and the Paris Commune of 1871. In the case of Germaine de Staël Ten Years of Exile, we will study her observations in her travels through Russia during the Napoleonic conquest of Europe in the year 1812, and her flight from Napoleon. The focus in this course is on social and historical issues. gruzinska@asu.edu
Anthony Gully , Ph.D.
For the 19th century lecture I will divide my time between a discussion of the representation of women in painting and the works of Berthe Morisot and for the 20th century I will examine the fashion in which women were represented between 1900 and 1950 and look at the career of Sonja Delaunay. ANTHONY.GULLY@ASU.EDU
The lecture will be open to the university community.
Suzanne Hendrickson, Ph. D. Moderato Cantabile by Marguerite Duras Suzanne.Hedrickson@asu.edu
William Hendrickson, Ph. D.
The feminine voice made itself heard beginning in the 12th century in both langue d’oc (the language of today’s Southern France) and langue d’oil (the language of the Northern French provinces and the English Nobility). We shall explore the early narrative genre of the Lai/Lay (Marie de France) and the later Roman/Novel (Christine de Pizan, 14th-15th century), which express knighthood and chivalry from the women’s point of view. BILL.HENDRICKSON@ASU.EDU
Dr. Anne Hibner Koblitz, Ph.D.
French women have had at least some participation in the scientific community since the 18th century, during which time Marie Lavoisier assisted her husband in his laboratory, and Emilie du Chatelet annotated the French edition of Newton's Principia. In the 19th century, their visibility increased, and women were patronesses of scientific salons and managed surrogate families of the proteges and students of their husbands. In addition, women such as Sophie Germain and Clemence Royer received recognition in mathematics and biology. This talk will discuss several prominent French women scientists and mathematicians of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and will conclude with a brief overview of French women's participation in scientific fields at the present time. KOBLITZ@ASU.EDU
Deborah Losse, Ph.D.
Marguerite de Navarre and Louise Labé wrote from two very different social settings. Marguerite de Navarre enjoyed a special place as sister of the King of France, François I. She interacted with the leading political, literary, and religious figures of her time, and yet, since she herself was considered to be unduly sympathetic with the religious reform movement, she was considered a controversial figure. She was extraordinarily influential in shaping the form of the short narrative tale or conte. Louise Labé came from a more bourgeois setting in the intellectual center of Lyon, but she too was viewed as transgressing woman’s traditional role. Following in the Petrarchan poetic tradition, she dared to speak openly of her affections and so was vilified by Calvin and other for the audacity in publicly expressing her sentiments. The works of these two women will be set in their historic and social contexts. Students will also view these women through the lens of feminist criticism. E-Mail: dlosse@ASU.EDU
Kristin Valentine, Ph.D.
A dramatic interpretation/reading of Madame de Sévigné’s Letters. KIRSTIN.VALENTINE@ASU.EDU