Notes on Marie de France from Kira Swab

I was kinda curious about Marie de France (its such a general name!) so I looked her up at Stapleton. Found out some pretty impressive stuff and thought if anyone else was wondering who she was and what she did, they might like to know a little bit of summary about what I found out in "A History of Women's Writing in France". Kate
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"Medieval women participated in the emergence of French literature and culture as readers and as writers to such an extent that it is impossible to imagine the course of French literature as we know it without their activity. In every period, women's voices have recounted the efforts of women and men to preserve their families, to seek and offer spiritual guidance, and to shape their communities.

Yet, if elite women throughout the Middle Ages made an indelible mark on literary history, they did so in spite of, rather than because of, the gender roles ascribed to them, in theory, by medieval society. The status of women varied throughout the medieval period according to rank and to region, which makes it impossible to generalize about their relative power and privilege. But women of all classes faced social restrictions and pervasive antifeminism. The writings of Marie de France and others constitute a remarkable body of reflections on women's authority, desire and faith and attest to women's power in forming families and communities. These writings vary between Anglo-Norman and French twelfth-century culture. The work of Marie de France is perhaps the greatest display of such diversity. It is a common critical consensus that 'Marie' was a French-born female author who lived in England, probably in religious orders, and that she wrote the Lais, the Fables and the Espurgatoire, all in octosyllabic verse. Many also believe that Marie's direct yet sophisticated style; her artful compilation of stories that examine in diverse yet related ways the vexing problems of love, sexuality, maturation, marriage, family, communities, death; and her depiction of magical, moral and spiritual transformations place her works among the most remarkable vernacular productions in medieval literature.

Although Marie de France may well have been a member of a religious order, her audience in the Lais and the Fables is a specifically courtly one that would have included young noblewomen and married ladies as well as feudal lords, knights and clerics. Women formed an important part of the audience in courts and noble households in England and France. The Lais of Marie de France provides compelling examples of women's contributions to courtly cultures. It portrays female voices or female characters who respond with conviction, eloquence and imagination to cultural restrictions, clerical misogyny or courly idealizations. The female speakers or characters often transform literary or social conventions in a way that redefines female identity or defends woman's honour."