Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-216) and index.
Contents:
Introduction : Marguerite de Navarre -- the visionary queen -- The labyrinth as structure and symbol : from experience to writing in the medieval and early modern contexts -- From the labyrinth, a vision : competing influences on Marguerite's religious, political, and creative endeavors -- "We walk by faith, not by sight" : exegesis, pilgrimage, and labyrinthine connections in the Reformation -- Into the labyrinth : mirroring sin, prompting reform -- Down tortuous paths : exploring approaches to justice and reform -- Above the labyrinth : a higher vision for reforming the self and society -- Conclusion : the empirical reader at labyrinth's end -- responding to Marguerite's vision.
Summary:
"The Visionary Queen affirms Marguerite de Navarre's status not only as a political figure, author, or proponent of non-schismatic reform, but also as a visionary. In her life and writings, the queen of Navarre dissected the injustices that her society and its institutions perpetuated against women. We also see evidence that she used her literary texts, especially the Heptaméron, as an exploratory space in which to generate a creative vision for institutional reform. The Heptaméron's approach to reform emerges from statistical analysis of the text's 72 tales, which reveals new insights into trends within the work, including the different categories of wrongdoing by male, institutional representatives from the Church and aristocracy, as well as the varying responses to injustice that characters in the tales employ as they pursue reform. Throughout its chapters, The Visionary Queen foregrounds the trope of the labyrinth, a potent symbol in early modern Europe that encapsulated the fallen world and redemption all at once, themes that Marguerite's project of reform consistently hearken back to"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.