FRENCH 432

STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL FRENCH LITERATURE

The construction of Gender in Medieval French Texts

Same as MDVL 432

During this course we will investigate the construction of gender in a variety of texts, both literary and non-literary, with a view to distinguishing a relativized concept of gender determined by various cultural contexts. We will review several approaches to gender, including anthropological, Marxist, psychoanalytical, postmodern and queer approaches. Readings will be drawn from the works of Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, and Teresa De Lauretis, among others. The medieval  texts that we will study will include courtesy literature Le Mesnagier de Paris, Christine de Pizan’s Livre des trios vertus), Albertus Magnus’ De Secretis Mulierum), monastic rules for women and Heloise’s letter to Abelard about the rule, saints’ lives, La Chanson de Roland, Silence (a thirteenth-century romance), selections of courtly lyric (love song, chansons de femmes, pastourelles), fabliaux. Some of the questions that we will address: How can we think about the relation of gender and sexuality to power? How do the shifting borders between what counts as masculine and what counts as feminine produce other kinds of bookies? What political ethical issues are thus raised? All texts will be available in either modern French or English translation.  prerequisite: FR 431 or consent of instructor

1 Unit

                                Section H            3-450                 M                1024 FLB        Fresco, Karen

                                                                                                                                k-fresco@uiuc.edu