Le paradoxe de l’écriture féminine parfaite : Marie de France et Christine de Pizan

This article studies the positions of two great female writers of the medieval period in the construction of a cultural vocabulary destined to become that of the “Querelle des Femmes”—the ceaseless debate on the place of women in society which grew out of the writings of medieval moralists and preachers. In the historical context of a generalized misogyny that both prescribed and justified the exclusion of women—considered to be naturally inferior to men—from the world of literature, Marie de France and Christine de Pizan affirm their intellectual authority and demonstrate the beauty, both perfect and paradoxical, of women’s writing.