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Christine de Pizan is considered to be the first professional woman writer. As a writer of the late Middle Ages, Christine tried to empower women by writing in defense of and about them. In her most famous piece, The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine writes a history of female contributions to her society while dispelling myths and misconceptions about women during her time. For the final project in the Professional Writers in the Literary Marketplace course, I have chosen to read this piece by Christine as an entrée into my exploration of Christine de Pizan as a medieval professional writer. Because Christine was a true woman of letters, well versed in all the liberal arts, she knew how to manipulate the literary marketplace by applying the rhetoric of her time. She used her knowledge of writing and selling ideas for two reasons. First, she used this knowledge for economic gain because as a young widow, she had to support her family. And second, Christine used her knowledge in order to further her insightful and intelligent argument in favor of women, past, present and future. Although Christine de Pizan lived more than 600 years ago, her life as a professional writer and her career in the literary marketplace is quite a modern experience. We can learn much from what she says in defense of women, historically. But we can learn so much more about the way in which she said it. In this paper I would like to explore the purpose behind the writing of The Book of the City of Ladies. Also, I would like to develop further lines of inquiry on the subject of medieval writers and rhetoric, primarily focusing on the contributions of Christine de Pizan. THE BOOK The Book of the City of Ladies was originally written, in French, around 1405. In 1521, the piece was translated into English by Bryan Anslay. This was the only version of the work for hundreds of years. Since Christine was born around 1365, this piece was written when she was forty years old. By this time, she had been writing for many years in either verse or prose. Her writing concentrated mostly on celebrating or defending womankind. In this book, Christine sets out to situate, historically, the contributions of women to their culture and society. The piece is the first in history to be written by a woman in praise of women. Since the writing of the Roman de la Rose, a debate followed for many years about the question of woman (querelle des femmes). In the Roman de la Rose, women are seen as inept, temptress-type beings. During this time, this view of women was accepted in the philosophical and political spheres, although, I doubt this extreme view was held in everyday life, by every day people. Christine joined this debate in 1401 in a work entitled, Epistres du debat sur le Roman de la Rose. She attacks the immorality of the premise of the book. Although Christine was an established professional poet at this time, she begins to set the stage for her argument in defense of women in the Epistres book. This book was the precursor to the City of Ladies. Christine would fully realize her position and purpose in The Book of the City of Ladies. THE PURPOSE In The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine intelligently, humbly and yet with precise cunning, places women in a male-dominated account of history. Through the use of allegory, a typical medieval literary devise, she invokes a conversation between Lady Reason, Lady Rectitude and Lady Justice in order to situate women throughout history. The book is divided into three parts with each section devoted to a conversation with each person. With each conversation, Christine tries to dispel many misconceptions about women, such as their lack of intelligence and their infidelity. I believe that one of reasons why Christine wrote this book was to empower the women of her day. She even attempts this move with the title of the book. Instead of using the word, women, she uses the word lady to establish the idea of nobility. However, she is not speaking of nobility of bloodlines but nobility of the soul which, she believed, every woman could obtain through proper education and religious commitment. THE CITY A Look at Christine’s Rhetoric Each Lady helps Christine to build this allegorical city of ladies by employing the language one would use in planning, establishing and constructing a city. There are ditches to be dug, walls to be erected, streets to be paved and individuals to be wooed to live there. There is a plan to her introduction of the Ladies and the order of the subjects she discusses with each of them, I believe. In this short paper, it would be impossible to explore the intricacy of her rhetorical devices and how they substantiate her argument in defense of women. However, I would like to discuss a few of them as they provide a basis to my further lines of research and inquiry. The first and obvious rhetorical device that Christine uses is in the order of her conversations with the Ladies. The first book is a conversation with Lady Reason. Her conversation with this Lady establishes the logical reasoning behind the construction of the city. Christine showcases her intimate knowledge of ancient philosophers and history through her introduction of important women of ancient Greece and Rome. This is an important rhetorical move on the part of Christine because it establishes her as a well read and learned woman. Through her extensive historical accounts of these women, she shows to her possible male audience that she was educated as they were. This showcase of her intelligence is crucial to her credibility. That is why, I believe, her conversation with Lady Reason is held at the beginning of the book. The next book involves a conversation with Lady Rectitude, or "right living" and "doing." In this book, Christine continues to build the city and begins the process of populating her city. She chooses wise women first to reside in the towers built for noble women. These women are noble because of what they do and think, not because of bloodlines. In this book, she still makes reference to Greek and Roman women. In the third and last book, she invokes a conversation with Lady Justice. The city has been built and is ready to house the most supreme women of all, with the Virgin Mary as Queen of the city. These final women are mostly martyred saints of the Christian church. Christine spares no horrific detail of their martyrdom. Because Christine did not come to destroy the established culture of her time, she includes and bases the validity and strength of her city on these holy women. Medieval literature is often laced with and based on Christian individuals and beliefs. Her conversation with Lady Justice, extoller of judgement of good and evil, is appropriate as the final impression that she meant to leave on her reader. Another rhetorical device that Christine used had to do with the way in which she interacted with the three Ladies. In her conversations with them, Christine would pose questions to the Ladies, asking their wisdom and insight on the subject. This allowed the reader to view Christine as a humble woman, eager to understand and learn that which she made her reader believe she did not know. After posing her question, one of the Ladies would answer in a distinctive, authoritative voice. What was amazing to me was that these allegorical personas sounded different than Christine. Therefore, she could humbly ask a question that may be a sensitive issue, and one of the voices could answer her soundly with authority. Christine knew the questions to ask, for she had labored over the answers to them for years. I don’t know if Christine actually believed she invoked someone such as a spirit who would answer her questions or if she knew this was the best way to get her point across and still maintain her position as a professional, commissioned writer. As Christine is recounting the lives of saints and sybils, she uses another rhetorical device that has pedagogical implications. Christine is very repetitious. She either refers to women she has previously spoken about or she reiterates the same idea over and over. I see this technique used specifically when dealing with the virtue of a woman. This topic seemed to be of utmost importance to Christine. Most, if not all, the women are virgins by choice as they have sworn their love, life and body to the edification and continuation of the Christian church. As Christine believes that all women can act and do noble things, this maintenance of one’s virtue seems to be a place where a woman could start. Another subject that Christine uses very often is that of perseverance. Life during the Middle Ages was, at best, difficult. We see through the stories that she repeatedly tells the concept of adapting to and overcoming challenging obstacles. And if there were no earthly reward for her, there would surely be a heavenly one for the perseverance that she showed. As this is not an exhaustive list of Christine’s rhetorical devices, this final one completes the major rhetorical moves she makes in order to establish her argument in defense of women. Throughout the book, in all three parts – which is a very medieval way to place the parts of the book, balanced by a trinity – Christine quotes ancient and contemporary male voices. As she seeks acceptance of her argument, she also seeks unity and understanding among the sexes. I also believe she sets out to instruct the women who read this book. Reading this book may have been the first opportunity many women had to learn about ancient philosophers and contemporary authors. And then, of course, Christine interjects these male voices in order to establish her credibility as a woman of letters. If she were to extol only the virtue of women throughout the centuries without providing the male voice, she would not achieve the sort of balance between men and women for which she was looking. THE QUESTIONS Besides a few ballads and poems here and there and bits from her books, this was the first time I had sat down to read an entire work by Christine de Pizan. I chose this first book because it was her most famous, as I stated earlier. Because of its pivotal expression of women in history and its popularity, I thought reading The Book of the City of Ladies might provide some insight into Christine as a medieval, professional writer and rhetorician, in light of the issues we explored in the Professional Writers in the Literary Marketplace course. Many questions came to my mind for further inquiry into the subject of medieval professional writers and their rhetoric and the person, Christine de Pizan. History As Christine de Pizan lived and wrote in the late Middle Ages, it would be important to explore this time of tearing down and building up as the Renaissance takes shape. Since I plan to situate my research of Christine de Pizan in a socio-historical context, an in-depth study of the culture of that time would be imperative for an accurate portrayal of Christine as a female, medieval professional writer. I would want to be sure to include subjects pertaining to women such as the following:
Readers Another area of importance in relation to Christine’s work and primarily The Book of the City of Ladies would be to research her audience. It would be interesting to explore how her audience shaped the writing of the book. As I can’t personally interview Madame de Pizan, I would try to establish a possible audience through historical research about her writings and other books of her time. With an established audience, I would then look at possible evidence within the text as to how she addressed the audience. It would also be important to cite where she would have deviated from the intended audience in order to maintain or establish an idea that she believed important. As Christine was a successful professional writer, I believe she was very aware of her audience and knew how to anticipate their expectations in a text. However, I would provide more support to the research being done in audience analysis by looking at her uniqueness as a female professional writer in an intensely, male-dominated field and how she situated herself between her writing and her audience. It would also be interesting to examine how this particular book was received in her time. During the late Middle Ages, did the readers of this book believe the points she was trying to make? Was she successful in her establishment of her argument in defense of women? Since there was only one English translation created in 1521 and then left alone for centuries, or so it might seem, what was the importance of this book to her audience? What was this book’s role, with its obvious references to what we today know as the Roman Catholic Church, to the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s? And also, how was this book with its situation of the Virgin Mary as the Queen of the female sex, received by the Cult of the Virgin Mary during the Middle Ages? Writers Another possible line of inquiry would be to explore Christine’s contemporaries. In comparing these other writers, it would be fascinating to look at these writers’ education and professional lives. To establish the norm for writers of Christine’s time would be yet another important way of situating her uniqueness as Europe’s first female professional writer. It would also be important to research her influence on these writers, if any. I would do this by looking for direct or indirect citations in these authors’ works. Was there collaboration in her time between these writers and Christine? How did collaboration take place in the field of writing in the late Middle Ages? This understanding of collaboration would lend an historical perspective and help to establish the many forms of collaboration that have taken place over the centuries. Christine’s Legacy There are many questions I have about the woman and the writer that is Christine de Pizan. First of all, I would like to know about her specific education. I know that she was educated by her father. But I would like to know about the greatest influences in her education. Most importantly, I would like to research that time from her widowhood until her first commissioned piece. She seems quite modern in her view of her profession in that she worked what would be considered "odd" jobs in order to earn money for the family she alone had to support. But how did these "odd" jobs influence her view of writing? Did her work as a copyist or scribe help her to enter the literary marketplace of that time? I would also like to research her relation to the illuminations of her text. Illuminations were a very important part of medieval literature. Because of her background as a copyist, I would like to research how much of a role she played in commissioning the works that would accompany her text. Because she was so conscientious about her work and a consummate professional, I would assume she played an intricate role in the creation of these illuminations. Concerning feminist theory, I would like to explore two things. First, it would be interesting to compare how The Book of the City of Ladies was received by the writers and people of her day, as stated above, but then take it a step further to look at how it is viewed today within an historical perspective. What do feminist think of the work of Christine de Pizan? Is she well received and studied today for patterns of feminist theory? Or, is she dismissed as an historical figure only? Today, women in rhetoric studies are striving to include the often forgotten voices of women like Christine de Pizan. It seems there is still much work to be done in this area, specifically related to professional writing. I hope to add to this growing body of work as a writer, a medievalist and a woman.  |