LOVE AS A THREAT: CHRISTINE DE PIZAN’S REFLECTIONS ON COURTLY LOVE IN THE BOOK OF THE DUKE OF TRUE LOVERS
Journal Title: The Journal of International Social Research - Year 2017, Vol 10, Issue 54
Abstract
This study analyzes a Medieval woman writer’s, Christine de Pizan’s opinions on the courtly love and her counter arguments by focusing on her The Book of the Duke of True Lovers. As an intellectual, de Pizan crusades against the dominant misogyny in her day through her works which function as an answer to the other male writers underlining women’s secondary status in the Medieval period. Since de Pizan argues the wrongness of misogyny by means of literature’s soft power, she does not only gain respect from educated circles and aristocracy in her time but also finds an appropriate agency in order to spread her own ideas to large masses despite illiteracy widespread in the Middle Ages. Although to apply such a modern concept as ‘feminism’ to a medieval woman writer is quite problematic, it can be said that de Pizan developed an idiosyncratic perception of feminism in her time by combining her devoutness of Catholic teachings to the defence of women’s position in her society. In other words, she does not blame the religious teachings for the degraded position of the women in her time. On the contrary, she puts blame on the immoral examples and advice encouraging women to be considered as the representatives of Satan and doers of evil deeds. Duke of True Lovers, in this respect, solidifies her attitude towards the negative influence of courtly love towards women. The study tries to demonstrate in what way Duke of True Lovers differentiates from the conventional romances by concentrating on de Pizan’s evaluation of love as a concept by referring to certain characters, Duke, The Lady and her confidante in the tale. The study concludes that de Pizan’s definition of love is based on her moral values and Christian belief. Conventions of the courtly love lead to a wrong perception of love. Although de Pizan does not disregard love as a whole, she deduces that it should be balanced and controlled in accordance with the rules of society since even a ‘true’ love can be harmful to the women in the medieval period.
Authors and Affiliations
Şafak ALTUNSOY
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP269223
- DOI 10.17719/jisr.20175434565
- Views 158
- Downloads 0
INVESTIGATION OF HOPELESSNESS LEVELS OF STUDENTS STUDYING INTO REGARD TO THEIR PARTICIPATION IN RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES: AN EXAMPLE OF AKDENİZ UNIVERSITY
The purpose of this study is to determine hopelessness levels of students studying in the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Akdeniz University during 2016-2017 academic year with regard to some variables. The Beck Hopelessne...
WOMEN’S ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION INTHE DOMESTIC MIGRATIONAND URBANIZATION PROCESS
Urbanization, one of the important problems of societies, is usually expressed as the processes concurrent with industrialization despite the fact it follows a different formation and development course for each country....
TEXTUAL HYBRIDITY IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH THEATER
This article deals with the changes the modern French drama has experienced up until today. It presents and discusses different play examples within the changing process. Starting from the 1980’s, contemporary french th...
AN ANALYSIS OF CITY OF GLASS BY PAUL AUSTER & CRYING OF LOT 49 BY THOMAS PYNCHON IN TERMS OF POSTMODERNIST ELEMENTS AND TECHNIQUES
This study aims at analyzing postmodernist detective fictions entitled City of Glass, the first novella of the New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and Cyring of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon in terms of postmodernist elements and...
INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS’ OPTIONS OF PARTICIPATING COMPUTERIZED ADATIVE TESTING AND PAPER-PENCIL TESTING
The purpose of this study is to examine the opinion of students who took computerized adaptive (CAT) and paper-pencil testing. This research was made on the opinions of 205 students in 2013-2014 fall semester. Data colle...