The Feminist Mnemonics of Christine de Pizan Jody Enders espite the resurgence of critical interest in Christine de Pizan D (who is often considered the first professional female writer and a “forerunner” of feminism), the contribution of this highly educated fifteenth-century author to the history of rhetoric has remained largely unexplored.’ In this essay, I propose to reread the Cite‘ des dames as Christine’s response to the apparently insoluble problem raised during the famous epistolary quarrel about the Roman de la Rose: namely, how does a woman espouse and demonstrate her own position when grounded in institutional referents that are masculine? When she is employing rhetoric, that celebrated weapon of the hegemonic arse- nal?* Those questions have been asked before and even answered before by such innovative critics as Lee Patterson, Maureen Quilligan, 1 For Christine as a forerunner of feminism see for example Beatrice Gottlieb, “The Problem of Feminism in the Fifteenth Century,” in Women of the Medieval Warld: Essays in Honor of John H. Mundy, ed. Julius Kirshner and Susanne F. Wemple (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985), 337-64; Joan Kelly, “Early Feminist Theory and the Querelle des fmmes, 1400-1789,” Signs 8 (1982): 4-28; Douglas Kelly, “Reflections on the Role of Christine de Pisan as a Feminist Writer,” SubStance 2 ( 1972) : 63-7 1 ; Lula McDowell Richardson, The Forerunners of Feminism in French Literature of the Renais- sancefrom Christine of Pzsa to Marie de Gournuy (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Uni- versity Press, 1929); and Earl Jeffrey Richards, “Christine de Pizan and the Question of Feminist Rhetoric,” Teaching Language through Literature 22 ( 1983) : 15-24. 2 Eric Hicks, ed., LA Dibat sur k “Roman de la Rose” (Paris: Champion, 1977). I use the term “arsenal” deliberately; rhetoric was consistently cast as a battle. See ‘Wars of Words” in Jody Enders, Rhetm‘c and the origtns of Medieual Drama (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, iggz), 89-110; hereafter cited as ROMD. I wish to thank Eugene Vance, Marshall Brown, and Cynthia Brown for their many insightful suggestions during the writing of this essay. Modern Language Quarterly 55:3, September 1994. 0 1994 University of Washington.