So far, we have read the words/works of Marie de France, Christine de Pisan, Louise Labe, Marguerite de Navarre, Madame de Sevigne, and Madame de Lafayette. In your opinion, what is the state of "woman" in Medieval and Renaissance/Post-Renaissance France? Are there any burning issues that you think need to be or will be resolved in Enlightenment France?
6 comments:
The "state" of woman, during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, revolves around her 'sense' of duty to her family. Perhaps the Englightenment will enable women to develop their sense of individualism. While the Medieval and Renaissance writers began to represent women as more than homemaker and mother, the Enlightment will hopefully give them a purpose far beyond that which is fulfilled previously.
All of the things that we have read so far have given the sense that women are having to defend everything that they have said. I just don't feel that they have had any freedom and that they all desire to write what they truly feel but are inhibited. I believe that these women writers will be starting to experience a new freedom in which they will be able to write what they really want to and not fear for their lives.
It seems to me that the state of women in pre-enlightenment France was one of being a secondary citizen. Their duty was to marry and live true to their spouse. They were not commonly educated or given the chance to write as freely as men and were held to a standard of virtue that their male contemporaries were by expected to uphold. I think all of these issues need to be resolved, but I'm not sure how many will be solved during the period of Enlightenment. They will perhaps be freed from some religous limitations and education will be more stongly emphasized in society, but many issues of womens rights will remain unsolved till much later in history.
The state of "woman" in Medieval and Renaissance/Post-Renaissance France proves to be inferior to that of "man". A woman's expression of individuality was suppressed as seen in various arenas such as writing and romantic expression. What defined virtue for a woman, largely comprised of fidelity to her husband both in thoughts and actions, which was not the same for a man. Why was a woman not allowed the same level of freedom? The same level of liberation for both genders needs to be permitted in Enlightenment France. Even though a woman will have more freedom in Enlightenment France that in the Medieval and Renaissance periods,it seems improbable that equity of treatment will be attained.
Women in Medieval and Renaissance France still seem to be less than human or less than 'man'. They must apologize and have ample reason for everything they do and it borders on the ridiculous how often these writers find their own sex at fault. Perhaps that is the feel those authors wanted to give us. A true feeling of what it was to be woman at this point. A window into their own stories. I think that women in the Enlightenment period of France are still going to be about the same condition. Men might have gotten smarter, but they certainly didn't really wise up to women just yet in that historical period.
In hindsight, since I've clearly had a taste of Enlightenment writers and then some, I have to make note of how I really considered what the public reaction to a woman writer would be during that time. Yes, I wonder why there aren't more female writers during this time or any, but I generally saw it as an issue of education. Women didn't write because they didn't have the means to learn. And I knew it wasn't seen as their "place" to write being primarily soulless baby makers (livestock, if you will). But I never stopped to consider what reaction the public would have had to a woman writing, especially if she were challenging traditional notions of femininity (which putting pen to paper was enough of a challenge to societal norms, really). It would be Joan of Arc style witch burnings every week.
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