The Master and Minerva. Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture.

SOLTERER, HELEN

ISBN 10: 0520088352 / ISBN 13: 9780520088351

Published by Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, University of California Press. 1995, 1995

About this Item

Original publisher's sewn blue paperback, pictorial frontcover, large 8vo: 302pp., illustrations, chapternotes & references, list illustrations, acknowledgements, general bibliography, index. Very fine copy - as new.

Seller Inventory # 156675

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Master and Minerva. Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture.
• Publisher: Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, University of California Press. 1995
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520088352
• ISBN 13: 9780520088351
• Binding: Soft cover

About this title

Synopsis

Can words do damage? For medieval culture, the answer was unambiguously yes. And as Helen Solterer contends, in French medieval culture the representation of women exemplified the use of injurious language.

Solterer investigates the debates over women between masters and their disciples. Across a broad range of Old French literature to the early modern Querelle des femmes, she shows how the figure of the female respondent became an instrument for disputing the dominant models of representing women. The female respondent exploited the criterion of injurious language that so preoccupied medieval masters, and she charged master poets ethically and legally with libel. Solterer's work thus illuminates an early, decisive chapter in the history of defamation.

About the Author

Helen Solterer is Associate Professor of French at Duke University.