Finding a Voice: The Ambivalent Role of Women in Medieval Literature

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Dr. Mario Sassi is Visiting Assistant Professor of Romance Languages at Williams College in Massachusetts.

In the Divine Comedy, the character of Beatrice, the woman Dante loved, plays the role of guide and theologian in the highest spheres of the Heavens. At the same time, there are few female characters in the poem, and these seem constrained into traditional and stereotypical roles. The author Christine de Pizan, despite being a well-regarded author in her time, was compelled to defend and insist upon the agency of women in the bestseller of her time, the Romance of the Rose, rich in misogynistic tropes. Boccaccio’s works of literature swing between gender norms, sometimes challenging and sometimes exalting them. These are only some examples of how women as characters in Medieval literature struggled to find a position in a world dominated by male writers. This presentation will address the most common points of this ambiguity, shedding light on the overall representation of women in texts and how this changes with women writers and poets.