Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France - Softcover

"In an earlier book, Tracy Adams did great service to the scholarly community by helping dispel the outdated, slanderous fictions surrounding the lives of Isabeau of Bavaria and Louis of Orleans. In this work she continues to apply recent historical research to the task of developing new readings of Christine de Pizan. The result is an up-to-date and very readable history of the conflict between the Burgundians and Armagnacs that offers insightful readings of all of Christine's major works and enhances our understanding of her allegiances and the ways in which her texts responded to the conflict."-Karen Green, Monash University "By opening up her literary production to a fresh set of interpretive possibilities, and by asking readers to question their assumptions and accepted narratives about Christine's relationships to the powers of her day, Adams offers a welcome contribution to late medieval literary scholarship."-Daisy Delogu, Modern Philology "Adams's analysis is original and deserves to be widely read."-Stephen H. Rigby, English Historical Review "[Tracy] Adams has given us a sophisticated presentation that in turn happily gives us a much more complex Christine, but one that could be more complex still by integrating the political Christine back into the humanist and poet Christine. Readers, nonetheless, will find much in this little volume of value that integrates Christine's writings into her fraught and troubled world, and shows us how integrated this world was with Christine's mind."-Gary W. Jenkins, Sixteenth Century Journal "This book is very much one to keep at one's elbow in any undertaking concerned with the closing phases of the Hundred Years War; it compels the reader to consider alternate ways of thinking. Adams's latest contribution to the field will appeal to Christinian scholars and others interested in French history, the politics and literature of political crisis, rumour and propaganda, monarchy, queenship, gender and gendered discourse."-Zita Eva Rohr, Gender & History "A short review does not do justice to the significance of this work. Adams successfully situates ('rehistoricizes') a multifaceted literary figure into an extraordinarily complex period in French history, and does so with clarity and sensitivity, providing a most helpful and stimulating resource for scholars and students."-Kate L. Forhan, American Historical Review "This clear and thorough narrative of Christine's engagement with the conflict will be of value to historians and literary scholars alike."-Charlotte E. Cooper, French Studies "This book makes a valuable contribution to Christine studies and related fields in its convincing presentation of many exhilarating ideas and approaches to familiar but underquestioned material while introducing new sources. The careful notes, bibliography, and detailed index are all attractively produced. A pleasure to read, it is highly recommended for levels ranging from undergraduates to specialists in French history and literature."-Nadia Margolis, Renaissance Quarterly

In Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France, Tracy Adams offers a reevaluation of Christine de Pizan's literary engagement with contemporary politics. Adams locates Christine's works within a detailed narrative of the complex history of the dispute between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, the two largest political factions in fifteenth-century France. Contrary to what many scholars have long believed, Christine consistently supported the Armagnac faction throughout her literary career and maintained strong ties to Louis of Orleans and Isabeau of Bavaria. Adams claims that Christine's writings not only voiced support for Louis and Isabeau in opposition to John of Burgundy, but also contributed to defining kingship and creating authority in France's turbulent political climate. In addition, Christine promoted, defended, and profoundly affected the nature of female regency as it developed in France from the fifteenth through the seventeenth century. By focusing on the historical context of the Armagnac-Burgundian feud at different moments and offering close readings of Christine's poetry and prose, Adams shows the ways in which the writer was closely engaged with and influenced the volatile politics of her time.