The Allegory of Female Authority: Christine de Pizan's Cité Des Dames

by Maureen Quilligan

Book Overview

The first professional female writer, Christine de Pizan (1363-1431) was widowed at age twenty-five and supported herself and her family by enlisting powerful patrons for her poetry. Her Livre de la Cit des Dames (1405) is the earliest European work on women's history by a woman. An allegorical poem that revises masculine traditions, it asserts and defends the authority of women in general and of its author in particular. In this generously illustrated...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801497884
• ISBN13: 9780801497889
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"