Poet Heroines in Medieval French Narrative: Gender and Fictions of Literary Creation Book

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction Authors, Writers, Singers, and Women: Gendering Literary Creation in Medieval French Culture 1

Part I From Minstrel Heroine to Poet Heroine: The Thirteenth Century and Beyond

1 Singing from a Woman's Body: Minstrel Heroines as Performers and Texts 29

2 The Parrot and the Swan: Performance and Composition in Sone de Nansay 61

Part II Dangerous Muses: Toute Belle and Her Sisters in the Fourteenth-Century Dit

3 Competing Perspectives: Guillaume de Machaut's Voir Dit 83

4 A Contemporary Reaction to the Voir Dit: Deadly Words and Captive Imaginations in Jean Froissart's Prison Amoureuse 117

Part III Women at the Origins: Fifteenth-Century Prose Romance

5 Verbal Prowess: Women's Artistry and Men's Chivalry in Perceforest 139

6 Women Writers and the Monstrous Author in Ysaÿe le Triste 167

Conclusion: What about Christine? 193

Notes 203

Bibliography 251

Index 263