LITERATURE QUESTIONS
MEDIEVAL WOMEN WRITERS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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she was the only woman to work in the oral tradition
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she was the first female mystic
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she wrote in order to support herself
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she was the only woman to write medieval lays
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Detailed explanation-1: -Because she was one of the few women of the time period that were educated, she was able to write. When she was unexpectedly left to support herself and her family on her own, she became the first woman in Europe to successfully make a living through writing.
Detailed explanation-2: -Christine specifically objected to the use of vulgar terms in Jean de Meun’s allegorical poem. She argued that these terms denigrated the proper and natural function of sexuality, and that such language was inappropriate for female characters such as Madam Reason.
Detailed explanation-3: -Christine de Pisan’s Italian father was astrologer to Charles V, and she spent a pleasant, studious childhood at the French court. At age 15 she married Estienne de Castel, who became court secretary. Widowed after 10 years of marriage, she took up writing in order to support herself and her three young children.
Detailed explanation-4: -Christine had taken issue with what she saw as the misogynistic treatment of women in Jeun de Meun’s continuation of the famous French poem La Roman de la Rose (The Romance of the Rose). So she decided, in around 1405, to defend her sex by writing a text which would portray women more positively.
Detailed explanation-5: -She was famous for her poetry, which sometimes reflected her grief over her husband’s death. De Pisan also penned a biography of King Charles V, which was published around 1404. In modern times, however, de Pisan is best remembered for her revolutionary works on women.