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Exercise 2: Christine de Pizan, Feminism and History, due in class and electronically on February 1

As you read Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies (selections on e-reserve), think about some of the questions we have begun to ask in this course: What is history? What is feminism? How do stories about the past that look for continuity differ from those that emphasize change? This exercise asks you to identify passages in Pisan that address these issues, and to develop an argument based on your evidence.

When you identify a passage, you should provide the page number, the section of the book it is from, and include enough quoted text to make its relevance to the question clear. This will mean between 3-10 lines in most cases. If the passage is very long, you should use elipses (…) to cut out extraneous material. If necessary, you may also paraphrase parts of it, using brackets [] to distinguish your own words from those in the original. Make sure that a reader of your exercise will be able to understand your passage without refering back to Pizan's text.

Please use this form to submit the exercise electronically and to print out two copies, one to give to Lori Creed in class on Thursday, February 1, and the other to use for your own reference.

Part I

  1. Copy one passage in Pizan that highlights an issue that is still a concern for women today. [15 lines]
  2. Copy one passage in Pizan in which the concerns seem radically distant from those of women today. [15 lines]

Part II

Your answers in the rest of the exercise should address one of the following questions.

Was Christine de Pizan a feminist?

Was Christine de Pizan a historian?

  1. Paste the question you chose to answer here: [1 line]
  2. Identify at least two passages that support an affirmative answer. [space for 4 different passages, 15 lines each]
  3. Identify at least two passages that support a negative answer. [space for 4 different passages, 15 lines each]
  4. Now write the opening paragraph of an imaginary paper that takes a position on the question you chose. Your answer will need to brieflly explain what you mean by feminism, or by history, and include a clear thesis statement. (For guidelines on writing a thesis statement, please see the Writing Tutorial Services page on developing a thesis statement.) [30 lines]
  5. Please paste the thesis statement for your imaginary paper here, just to make sure we can't miss it: [10 lines]
  6. Comments or questions: