Page "Christine de Pizan" Paragraph 13

In The Book of the City of Ladies de Pizan created a symbolic city in which women are appreciated and defended.

She constructed three allegorical foremothers: Reason, Justice, and Rectitude.

She enters into a dialogue, a movement between question and answer, with these allegorical figures that is from a completely female perspective.

These constructed women lift Christine up from her despair over the misogyny prevalent in her time.

Together, they create a forum to speak on issues of consequence to all women.

Only female voices, examples and opinions provide evidence within this text.

Christine, through Lady Reason in particular, argues that stereotypes of woman can be sustained only if women are prevented from entering the dominant male-oriented conversation.

Overall, de Pizan hoped to establish truths about women that contradicted the negative stereotypes that she had identified in previous literature.

She did this successfully by creating literary foremothers that helped her to formulate a female dialogue that celebrated women and their accomplishments.