여성의 옷, 여성의 몸, 여성: 『여성들의 도시』에서 젠더의 가능성들

Abstract

This paper examines the diverse possibilities of female representations in Christine de Pizans The Book of the City of Ladies by focusing on women who cross-dress or wear armour. Christines project is to disprove the medieval misogynistic tradition. I argue that she achieves this by inviting into her city various bodies in various clothes, and claiming all these lives and virtues as womens. The Wife of Bernabo, Saint Euphrosyna, and Saint Marina are all cross-dressing women, but in each story the intersection of the female body and male dress manifest different meanings. While the Wife of Bernabo assumes male clothing as a strategic means to regain her place in patriarchy as a virtuous wife, Saint Euphrosyna cross-dresses as a monk to evade patriarchal power. While performing a male role and suppressing femininity makes Saint Euphrosynas religious career possible, her exceptional spirituality is posthumously proved by her female body, since having overcome femininity is a sign of greater dedication. Saint Marina, on the other hand, dons a monks clothes in obedience to her fathers wishes. When Saint Marina is accused of illegitimate fathering, her body represents both the sinful male body and the childbearing virgin. While Christines text portrays a wide spectrum of womens gender performances, she refuses to make direct descriptions of the female body itself. I argue this is Christines strategy to eliminate misogynistic representations of the female body inherent in the male canon Christine was borrowing from. Instead, Christine creates open possibilities for the female body in stories such as Hypsicrateas and Semiramis. When Hypsicratea puts on mens armour her body is reformulated as a more powerfully built, masculine one. On the other hand, Semiramis exhibits military prowess without cross-dressing, and her feminine, plaited hair is redefined as a sign of military and political power. Christines reworkings of these womens stories demonstrate how female bodies intersect with male and female dresses to create, in each case, diverse meanings. While I acknowledge Christines conservative standards of virtue and thus her limitations in contemporary feminist understanding, I claim her text carries rich possibilities for representing female lives.