Ebook: La communauté des femmes dans "Le livre des trois vertus" de Christine de Pizan [PhD diss]

Christine de Pizan, in several of her works, showed her effort to create a community of women which is the symbol of the united force from all women. In Le Livre des Trois Vertus, the community of women has the image of a fortress where the members of the Cité are well protected against attacks from anti-feminists.

In "La communauté des femmes dans Le Livre des Trois Vertus de Christine de Pizan", I first analyze the historical and literary context in which Christine decided to defend women's interests in her writing. In this context we see the origin of her idea of the community of women.

The second chapter demonstrates Christine's effort to establish her authority as well as that of the community of women. As a woman writer, she had to establish her authority in literary tradition dominated by maie writers. Christine appealed to divine authority by following the example of Saint Augustine, author of the Cité de Dieu (c. 427), and by obeying the three goddesses who gave her the right to use her pen to educate women and to create the community of women in Le Livre des Trois Vertus (1405).

In the third chapter, I examine how Christine, by redefining the rôle of women in society, and by reorganizing relationships between women, succeeded in reinforcing the union of the community of women.

In chapter four, the study of the transplantation of the letter of Sebile de la Tour (originally composed in Le Livre du Duc des Vrais Amans 1405) into Le Livre des Trois Vertus supports the contention that Christine de Pizan, by combining two différent genres (romance and essay), established a connection between literature and real life, made the courtesy lyric useful for women's moral éducation. Christine practiced the genre of romance (which had been always dominated by male writers) to defend women's interest in love and to provide a mirror for the community of women.