Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

French

Advisor

Francesca Canadé Sautman

Committee Members

Steven Kruger

Sara McDougall

Subject Categories

French and Francophone Literature | Medieval Studies

Abstract

Warrior Women and the Shaping of Narrative in Medieval French Literature focuses on the representation of women warriors in medieval French literature, but it is also concerned with contemporaneous historical accounts and texts. Additionally, it examines representations of the woman as warrior in a different medium, which is still narrative-based, showing the impact of illuminated manuscripts on visual culture. The study looks at a specific character in medieval French literature – the woman warrior – in order to see how her existence in a text contributes to its narrative shape and to the production of the text itself. Through close textual analysis and by using gender theory and historical methods to frame the question, the dissertation investigates the ways that the character of the warrior woman informs the text. Through the lens of gender theory, the dissertation examines the ways warrior women interact with arms and armor and occupy the space of the battlefield, which leads to shaping the narrative beyond the sum of its discrete elements.

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