Beyond Resistance: Azalais d'Altier, Christine de Pizan, and the "Good" Female Reader of Briseida

Abstract

It is often inaccurate to apply the term "resisting reader" to the fictional objecting female audiences found in medieval literary texts, because the objections anticipated usually reinforce the patriarchal system of values instead of challenging them. "Self-differentiation" is a more accurate term. The "riche dame" in the audience of Benoit de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie is one example. Nor should modern feminists reject historical female readers and writers, such as Azalais d'Altier and Christine de Pizan, who do not conform precisely to the subject positions for female readers established either by Benoit or by the modern feminist idea of what it means to "read like a woman."