An Amazon in the Renaissance

Abstract

This is one of the few chapters in the present volume that address the role of women in Virgilian translation practices. More specifically, Cox focuses on Marie de Gournay’s translation of Aeneid 2. While de Gournay’s translation is marked by imprecisions, it also conveys her sense of pride—a pride she takes in breaching the stronghold of men as she places herself into the lineage of French translators of Virgil. The author argues that de Gournay uses her translation as part of a struggle for sexual equality, a struggle that is especially intensified by her loneliness and sense of alienation within her own time and culture.