Comparative Literature
Janet Smarr 244-2712
Spring 1992

Jan. l6 intro

Jan. 21 Christine de Pizan Book of the City of Ladies I (whole)

Jan. 23 Christine de Pizan Book of the City of Ladies II & III, selecs.: Il: 7, 12-14, 20-23, 28-32, 36, 44-55, 62, 66; III: 1 , 10, 19

Jan. 28 background readings: social roles and status

Jan. 30 background readings: education

Feb. 4 background readings: reformation issues & work

Feb 6 trailblazers: humanist women's letters and orations; xerox: Cass. Fedele, Laura Cereta, Erasmus "The Abbot and the learned woman", reserve: read Albert Rabil, Laura Cereta (1981) intro. pp.3-28. [report: Marg. King "The Religious Retreat of Isotta Nogarola, (1418-66)" Signs 3:4 (summer 1978, 807-22) on reserve]

Feb. 11 (WWRR & xerox) Helisenne de Crenne

Feb. 13 noble women: Vittoria Colonna (WWRR & xerox)

Feb. 18 noble women: (WWRR & Xerox) Veronica Gambara, and Laura Terracina

Feb. 20 Marguerite de Navarre Heptameron I: prologue, 1-5, 8-10, and see intro.pp.34-7 for chronology of her life and times.

Feb. 25 MdN Heptameron II: prologue, 11 & 52; 16-21, 43, VI-prologue [love, men and women]

Feb: 27 MdN Heptameron II: end of II & prologue of III, 23, 30, 33, 34, 41, 44, 48, 55, 65 [relig.l

Mar. 3 MdN Heptameron IV: prologue, 21, 36-8, 40, 54, 61, 63, 67 [marr.]

Mar. 5 Queen Elizabeth (WWRR) [report: Constance Jordan: "Woman's Rule in 16th-Century British Political Thought" in Renaissance QuarterIy 40:3 (Autumn 1987), 421-51.1

Spring break

Mar. 17 middle-class women with salons: Des Roches (WWRR & xerox) [report: Anne Larsen, "Cath. des Roches 1542-87: Humanism and the Learned Woman" in J.of Rocky Mtn Mdvl and Ren Assocn 8 (1987), 97-117.]

Mar. 19 Louise Labe (WWRR & xerox); & Pernette du Guillet (WWRR) [Pernette = aristocrat but in same circle with Labe] [report: Labe's "Debate between Folly and Love" -in French in Oeuvres completes ed. E. Giudici (1981); in Eng. transl. by Elizabeth Farrell, Louise Labe's Complete Works (1986) and separately by Cox (1925)]

Mar. 24 courtesans (=mid.cl...salons) Gaspara Stampa (WWRR &xerox)

Mar. 26 courtesans: Veronica Franco (xerox) [report: Marg. Rosenthal in E. Goldsmith ed., Writing, in the Female Voice (1909), 3-24. Catherine Santore in Renaissance Quarterly 41:1 (spring 1908), 44-83.]

Mar. 31 other poets (xerox): Marie de Romieu, IsabelIa Morra.

Apr. 2 holy women: St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Catherine of Bologna (RRWW); St. Catherine de'Ricci (xerox). [report: Elissa Weaver "Spiritual Fun: A Study of 16th-century Tuscan Convent Theater" in Mary Beth Rose ed., Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (1986), 173-206.]

Apr. 7 pious laywomen: Marie Dentiere, Margaret More Roper (WWRR) [report: Anne Askew The First Examinacyon (1546) and The Lattre Examinacion (1547) on microfilm in Rare Bk Rm; plus optional: Elaine Beilin "Anne Askew's Self-Portrait in the Examinations" in Silent But For the Word, 77-91.]

Apr. 9 Swetnam controversy in Half Humankind 189-260

Apr. 14 Elizabeth Cary, Tragedy of Mariam

Apr. 16 Elizabeth Cary, Tragedy of Mariam [report: Fischer "Eliz. Cary and Tyranny" in Silent But For The Word, 225-373.

Apr. 21 "Mic Mulier" and "Haec Vir" in Half Humankind

Apr. 23 student presentations

Apr. 28 student presentations

Apr. 30 student presentations

May 5 review discussion

• Final exam 40%
• Term paper 40%
• Class participation 20%

Books Ordered:

Christine de Pizan, Book of the City of Ladies
Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron
Katerina Wilson ed., Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation
Henderson and McManus ed., Half Humankind