Search

This article proposes to explore crises from seemingly different backgrounds and periods (the madness of Charles VI of France and the French Wars of Religion) to demonstrate how these elements were used by authors in order to create emotional narratives in support of the failing monarchy. In the two situations, the French community was constructed as an entity which duty was to support the king. However, the authors use different methods to transmit their messages. While Christine de Pizan and the chroniclers advocate for the building of an integrating, all encompassing community around the love of and for the king, Ronsard's France is tasked at differentiating the Catholics and the Protestants, in an effort to construct France also as a monarchy loving community, of which the protestants are presented as the enemies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article we study two visions of the city. A "classical" and allegorical one is included in Christine de Pizan's well-known oeuvre, Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (1404/1405). We compare it to a biographically conditioned construction from the essays Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida (1991) by the Catalan writer Montserrat Roig. the key factor in our analysis is the chronotope structure and the relationship between the image of the city and the writing act. We note a number of similarities between the two visions, some of them stemming from the identity and the social and cultural situation of the feminine subject, but also point out some differences, as those determined by the historical context of both texts and their literary genres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]