A lecture by Roberta Krueger,
Burgess Professor of French, Hamilton College

Christine de Pizan was France’s first woman of letters, largely self-taught while
raised at the royal court; Joan of Arc was an illiterate peasant, who spun wool and tended sheep. How did these two fifteenth-century women’s lives converge (or not)to produce an image of France and persuade a King to defend it? We will explore how both women strategically used symbols of female power and royal authority to harness the King’s political will to defend an emerging nation, France. Finally,we will reflect on the legacy of Joan’s and Christine’s voices and their nationalist propaganda in French popular and academic culture today.
 

Co-sponsored by Division of Arts and Humanities, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Division of University Studies, History and English