Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
Originally considered anti-feminist, courtly love literature can now be read through a feminist lens thanks to the bold work of female writers like Marie de France. Prior to this new reading, courtly love set women in tropes of both idealized perfection and manipulative love. In many depictions, the woman’s actions are controlled by the male author’s, so much so that he creates an idealized image of her that is impossible for a real woman to obtain. In other tales, male authors exaggerate the lustfulness and heartlessness of women as they play with their “male lover’s delicate heartstrings” (Burns 23). Marie de France, on the other hand, uses her romantic fiction genre to carry messages of both feminism and forbidden love to her medieval audience.
When contrasted with the depictions of female desires in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the feminist qualities of Marie de France’s works become clear. While boldly touching upon topics of female sexuality, Marie de France subverts century-old stereotypes. Her depictions of female characters demonstrate a surprising sympathy for female sexuality, despite the tendency of men to shame women for their lustfulness. Through three of her courtly love stories, “Laustic,” “Eliduc,” and “Lanval,” Marie shifts her narrators’ judgement away from her female protagonists and gives them a level of depth distinct from other female characters. Her subtle forms of resistance, like depicting the woman’s husband in “Laustic” as oppressive and cruel, or hinting at homosexuality in “Eliduc,” give modern readers a better sense of what a non-idealized medieval relationship may have looked like. Through her boldness as a woman writer in a world full of men, Marie de France paved the way for females to overcome their stereotypes as selfish or idealized lovers.
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Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Charlotte Stanford
Feminist Courtly Love in Marie de France
Originally considered anti-feminist, courtly love literature can now be read through a feminist lens thanks to the bold work of female writers like Marie de France. Prior to this new reading, courtly love set women in tropes of both idealized perfection and manipulative love. In many depictions, the woman’s actions are controlled by the male author’s, so much so that he creates an idealized image of her that is impossible for a real woman to obtain. In other tales, male authors exaggerate the lustfulness and heartlessness of women as they play with their “male lover’s delicate heartstrings” (Burns 23). Marie de France, on the other hand, uses her romantic fiction genre to carry messages of both feminism and forbidden love to her medieval audience.
When contrasted with the depictions of female desires in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the feminist qualities of Marie de France’s works become clear. While boldly touching upon topics of female sexuality, Marie de France subverts century-old stereotypes. Her depictions of female characters demonstrate a surprising sympathy for female sexuality, despite the tendency of men to shame women for their lustfulness. Through three of her courtly love stories, “Laustic,” “Eliduc,” and “Lanval,” Marie shifts her narrators’ judgement away from her female protagonists and gives them a level of depth distinct from other female characters. Her subtle forms of resistance, like depicting the woman’s husband in “Laustic” as oppressive and cruel, or hinting at homosexuality in “Eliduc,” give modern readers a better sense of what a non-idealized medieval relationship may have looked like. Through her boldness as a woman writer in a world full of men, Marie de France paved the way for females to overcome their stereotypes as selfish or idealized lovers.