Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation

Colette WINN
Approaches to Teaching World Literature, 31, MLA Series, 2011, 431 p.

Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation considers the issues critical to teaching recently rediscovered writers, such as He« lisenne de Crenne, Pernette du Guillet, and Louise Labe », 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 du Montenay), the first published collection of private letters between women in French (the Dames de 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.


Contributeurs/trices:
Cécile Alduy
Jean-Philippe Beaulieu
Edith Joyce Benkov
Laura B. Bergman
Susan Broomhall
Leah Chang
Jane Couchman
Gary Ferguson
Carla Freccero
Nancy Frelick
Zeina Hakim
Karen Simroth James
Ann Rosalind Jones
Carrie F. Klaus
Claude La Charité
Anne R. Larsen
Deborah Lesko Baker
Mary B. McKinley
Leslie Zarker Morgan
Dora E. Polachek
Graziella Postolache
François Rigolot
Brigitte Roussel
Danielle Trudeau
Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier
Diane S. Wood
Carla Zecher