Class notes
Last class continue:
They personify philosophy as a women (Lady philosophy)
- Boethius → Does something very similar to Aristotle
- Bocochio → He defends poetry using Ethos, He criticizes the morals of authorities who
reject poetry
- It is possible to be a good/humble/truthful philosopher (not all philosophers are
bad)
- Personification allegory: where the fictional character represents a concept or a
type
(Romance of the rose is a famous example of this)
Second type of fake philosopher: ?? \/ \/ \/
- Bocochio defends philosophers in a better light against the pretension/hypocritical
poets (those in the ivory tower keeping them safe above from the ground, where they do
not have to think about the truth/reality)
- Bocochio also defends against obscure philosophers (when their speech is not clear)
- He uses the bible, and proves how obscure it could be
- poetry is not the only thing that could be obscure
- Obscurity is not a bad thing, lots of good things have obscurity (Obscurity in
poetry could be a good thing)
- If things come too easily, then we will value them less (when there is less of
something we value it more)
- His definition of poetry: (P. 204) defines poetry as an invention that are passionate ideas
that go on in ones mind
Poetry is:
- Passion (fervor → heat)
- Mind → Imagination, fiction
- New, strange, unusual (could be / potential)
- not mimesis: poetry is an imitation of real life (debate on if this a good or bad
thing?)
Christine de Pizan (current notes):
- Like Bocochio she is writing in the 1400 century
- Was able to successfully self support her and her family through ehr writing (both her
father and husband passed away with debt she had to pay back on their behalf so she
began to write and make a lot of money)
- she even was able to open and run a scriptorium for her own writing (a writing office)
- She wrote: Biographies, military strategies, treatise, poems, stories and more
- This is a time where there was no printing press, and a lot of writing would be re-
written by scriptures (who would infect the copies of literature with their own
language) This is why Christine wanted her own printing office so she could
control what was being distributed from her work.
Roman de la Rose (romance of the rose):
Story summary:
- A love story poem written in old french,
- It portrays the lover falling asleep, he dreams of finding his love (who is
symbolized as a rose)
- On his quest, he faces many personification (jealousy, desure, hate, old age)
- But he never encounters the rose
- When he wakes up, he is dejected / lovedorn
- A second poem takes over and he eventually plucks the rose
Attempt:
- The story tried to successfully portray compendium
- This story was being shared widely amongst people, and it became very famous and
loved (people even began looking for advice within this story)
- This is why Christine was so infuriated by the story
Christine’s reply to Roman de la Rose:
- Begins with her using humility topos of the connection between femininity and
knowledge to protect herself and not offend others (very passive aggressive, ironic)
- If a women talked to much, or gave too much of her opinion, then she could be
compared to being a “prostitute” (womens language was sexualized)
- Uses these contradictions to keep herself safe from societies views on her work
- She, in a way, is also serious with how she describes herself being a woman, because she
is very religious and maybe genuinely believes what she is saying to a certain extent.
- She understands the biased views on women within the society
- She is a very religious and god fearing women (not so much progressive, kind of
still conservative in how she thinks for our societal standards and even her own)
- She says that the story is contradicting because, yes what God had originally created was
perfect and pure, but it is sin in which corrupts things (no longer keeps them perfect)
- She says what is shameful should not be spoken in public (reference to testicles)
and this poem portrays things that are shameful and should have been kept
hidden (he uses a vulgar term about women) (body parts should not be spoken in
text, and should be kept hidden/veiled)
- Says the work should be called a piece of “idleness”:
- Reference to the bible (seven deadly sins)
slothiness
- Can be seen as frivolous (not having any serious or
valuable purpose)
- Society says that it is better to be married then not a virgin and commit sin (if you can’t
control yourself then you should get married) the story says celibacy is problematic
- Christine is conservative here and says this is wrong
- There is a conflict between: aesthetics vs. ethics
- Aesthetics: what is found pleasing, or acceptably pretty in society
- Ethics: the moral principles that govern a person's behaviors and decision making
- Christine comes down hard on this, because she says this is so morally
wrong it can not be deemed aesthetically pleasing
- (knowledge of good and evil will teach you to stay away from evil) Christine says we
don’t need literature to remind us of evil because human nature already has enough
around us (we need less sin instead of more)
We don't need religion as our sound guideline to determine was is good or bad for us anymore
(this ideology that Christine proposes is biased for this Christin god and outdated)
Book banning is not justified, but critiquing the book should be a very encouraged idea
