Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation

Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation considers the issues critical to teaching recently rediscovered writers, such as Hélisenne de Crenne, Pernette Du Guillet, and Louise Labé, who have enriched the literary canon by offering alternative perspectives on the social, political, and religious issues of early modern France. Addressing topics from law and medicine to motherhood and aesthetics, these women wrote in nearly every genre, and their works include several literary firsts: the first book of Christian emblems ever published by a woman (Georgette de Montenay), the first published collection of private letters between women in French (the Dames Des Roches), and the first full-length memoir by a woman in French (Margaret of Valois).

The volume considers techniques for reading women's writing alongside the texts of their male contemporaries and offers guidance on incorporating a range of resources into the classroom. Essays in part 1 explore the background and contexts so crucial for helping students understand how these writers negotiated their entry into the public world of writing. In part 2, contributors discuss specific genres. Part 3 describes critical methodologies that are useful in the classroom and demonstrates the benefits of teaching certain pairings of texts and authors. The fourth and final part recommends a range of electronic and print resources.

Colette H. Winn is professor of French at Washington University. Her publications include The Dialogue in Early Modern France; Ronsard, Figure de la variété; Veufs, veuves et veuvage dans la France d'Ancien Régime (ed. with Pellegrin); Approaches to Teaching Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron; Vieillir á la Renaissance (with Yandell). She has also published special issues on biblical exegesis in the sixteenth century, the education of women in Old Regime France, memory in early modern times, and early modern medicine.