Geoffrey Chaucer and Christine de Pizan: A Comparative Investigation

FAIN: FA-53189-07

Theresa M. Coletti
University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)

This book project examines literary and cultural relationships connecting Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), the so-called father of English poetry, and Christine de Pizan (1364-c.1430), medieval Europe’s first professional woman writer. The careers of these writers crisscross each other with dizzying complexity, largely because of their deep engagement with the cultural materials of a shared literary system. This book investigates how Chaucer and Christine de Pizan responded to—and made their marks upon—that system, exercising different formal and ideological options to shape their self-conceptions as authors and to frame broader meditations on literary endeavor and tradition.