Author: Sofina Dembruk, Institut für Literaturwissenschaft (Institute of Literary Studies), Universität Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart) - ResearchGate

Abstract: »The prominent role of the female body in Margaret of Navarra’s Heptaméron allows for complex and sometimes even paradoxical interpretations: if female beauty always completes the courtly ethical ideal of the virtuously chaste lady inspired by neo-platonic love doctrines, female charms are at the same time triggers of male desire, unbridled lust, and immoral delusion. To the extent that ambiguity seems to be inherent in the female body, it requires a male interpretative apparatus which, once discursively exhausted, seeks to seize the desired object by physical force. We recognize three scenarios of disposition in the Heptaméron, which we would like to examine in this article. All three ignite on the female body and reveal patriarchal patterns of disposition that manifest themselves in a bodily handling of women. However, in none of the three identified paradigms does Margaret of Navarra blindly reproduce patriarchal strategies of disposal over the female body without subtly counteracting them.« (Source: HeLix)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 13)
	Frauenkörper im Heptaméron (p. 14)
	Im Korsett des höfischen Ideals: Amadour und Floride (Novelle 10) (p. 16)
	„Faut il que une relligieuse scaiche si elle a des tetins?“: Der weibliche Körper im klerikalen Machtdiskurs (Novelle 22 und 23) (p. 25)
	Der Körper der Magd in der patriarchalen Hausordnung (Novellen 8 und 69) (p. 31)
	Schlussfolgerungen (p. 34)
	Literaturverzeichnis (p. 36)
		Primärliteratur (p. 36)
		Sekundärliteratur (p. 36)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of France / France in the early modern period | Literature: French literature / Marguerite de Navarre | Literature: Fiction about rape / Heptaméron | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in France