Intertextual Echoes: Emblems, Rabelais, and Heptaméron 13

Abstract

This article argues that in novella thirteen of the Heptameron , Marguerite de Navarre positions her text against misogynistic and iconographical representations of women found in works by Guillaume de La Perriere, Gilles Corrozet, and Rabelais. The article begins with a brief overview of the representations of women found in emblems of the period and in Rabelais's work. Next, the article analyzes novella thirteen from the perspective of emblematics. This analysis reveals how Navarre deploys emblematic structures and a technique of inversion in her tale in order to position her work against contemporary misogynistic and stereotypical representations of women.