The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan

Forhan, Kate Langdon

doi:10.4324/9781315237732

Cited by 11 publications

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“…17 De Pizan's political thought paradoxically couples a progressive defence of women with what appears as a regressive view of social class. 18 Her social theory is very conservative from a contemporary point of view, emphasising hierarchy within the community as a precondition of social and political order. However, in the 'Living Body Politic', political scientist Cary J. Nederman suggests that if seen in the context of her time, her use of the corporal metaphor reveals a 'capacious' image that aims to express 'equilibrium and equity'.…”

Section: The Book Of the Body Politicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Female Body Politic: Enacting the Architecture of The Book of the City of Ladies

Haralambidou¹

2020

Architecture and Culture

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The female sex has been left for a long time now, like an orchard without a wall, and bereft of a champion to take up arms in order to protect it. … For this reason, we three ladies whom you see before you have been moved by pity to tell you that you are to construct a building in the shape of a walled city, sturdy and impregnable. … You alone of all women have been granted the honour of building the City of Ladies. In order to lay the foundations, you shall draw fresh water from us three as from a clear spring. We will bring you building materials which will be stronger and more durable, than solid, uncemented marble. Your city will be unparalleled in splendor and will last for all eternity. 1 With these words the allegorical female figure, Reason compels Italian/French medieval author Christine de Pizan to construct a walled city in order to protect the female sex from misogyny. De Pizan describes this fictional encounter between herself, 'Christine', Reason and another two allegorical figures, the virtues of Rectitude and Justice, in her celebrated text The Book of the City of Ladies, 1404-05. 2Correlating the act of writing a book to defend women, with the construction of an imaginary defensive city, The Book of the City of Ladies, has been seen as a proto-feminist manifesto. 3 Although widely studied in terms of its literary significance, I am interested in the under-researched architectural and urban allegory depicted in the text and the accompanying illuminations (miniature illustrations), which imagine a Utopia inhabited solely by women and constructed for them by a woman (Christine herself). 4 My recent practice/drawing-led research focuses on this text, but here, I will present this in conjunction to my study of a second book, de Pizan's The Book of the Body Politic, 1404-07, where she attempts to describe what society looked, or should look like: the underlying structure of medieval collective life. 56 I will start with an introduction of de Pizan, followed by a brief description of The Book of the Body Politic before getting into more detail about The Book of the City of Ladies and finally presenting my design-led research entitled "City of Ladies". 7 I refer to 'de Pizan', the author, and to, 'Christine', to her depiction of herself in her text. 8 Christine de PizanChristine de Pizan was born in Venice in 1364 and she moved to Paris as a young child when her father was invited to join the court of King Charles V as a royal astrologer, physician and secretary. She was married at the age 14, happily, to a notary and royal secretary, and had three children, before disaster struck. Her father's death in 1387 was swiftly followed by the death of her husband in 1389 from the plague, changing dramatically her fortune and leading a widowed de Pizan to take up writing professionally in order to support her family at the age of 25. 9 Her talents had been devoted predominantly to the composition of

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Section: The Book Of the Body Politicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Female Body Politic: Enacting the Architecture of The Book of the City of Ladies

Haralambidou¹

2020

Architecture and Culture

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On Tyranny and the Global Legal Order

O’Donoghue

2021

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Since classical antiquity debates about tyranny, tyrannicide and preventing tyranny's re-emergence have permeated governance discourse. Yet within the literature on the global legal order, tyranny is missing. This book creates a taxonomy of tyranny and poses the question: could the global legal order be tyrannical? This taxonomy examines the benefits attached to tyrannical governance for the tyrant, considers how illegitimacy and fear establish tyranny, asks how rule by law, silence and beneficence aid in governing a tyranny. It outlines the modalities of tyranny: scale, imperialism, gender, and bureaucracy. Where it is determined that a tyranny exists, the book examines the extent of the right and duty to effect tyrannicide. As the global legal order gathers ever more power to itself, it becomes imperative to ask whether tyranny lurks at the global scale.

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Introduction

2021

On Tyranny and the Global Legal Order

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The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Female Body Politic: Enacting the Architecture of The Book of the City of Ladies

The Female Body Politic: Enacting the Architecture of The Book of the City of Ladies

On Tyranny and the Global Legal Order

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