Eng2800: Mapping the Ancient World

The Book of the City of the Ladies by Christine de Pizan, although a bit lengthy, was an overall enjoyable read for Chandanie and I. This passage is about a young woman, who also happens to be the author, who grows to hate the female sex because of a text wrote by a man named Matheolus. Because of her new found hatred, three goddesses appear one night to tell her of the many great accomplishments that women have achieved throughout history and to try to restore her faith in the female sex.

We felt that this passage introduced two main themes that we will be talking about in tomorrow’s presentation: loss of identity and females: the foundation of society. We found the first theme, loss of identity, mostly prevalent in the short chapters 1-4 when Christine loses faith in the female sex and wishes she was a man. The second theme, females: the foundation of society, is seen mainly throughout the rest of the book. Some chapters where this theme stood out to us are chapters 33, 34, 37 and 38 where Reason is telling Christine about the new forms of knowledge women have introduced into society. One example Reason gives to Christine to try to help her regain her trust in the female sex is, “It is definitely the case that when Nature fails to make a body which is as perfect as others, she has created, be it in shape or beauty, or in some strength or power of limb, she very often compensates for it by giving that body some greater quality than the one she has taken away (page 789).” Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why or why not?

We will also be discussing the article, “From The City of Ladies to Watch Bitches: Real French Feminism” by Katherine Roussos. This article talks about how feminism is a cultural phenomenon, and mentions how The Book of the City of the Ladies is similar to a French society. The article points out the differences between the basis of American culture and the basis of French culture and how this ties into how people think about topics such as feminism and gender roles.

Zeynep and I’s reading was a little bit interesting. It drifted away from the intense literary driven texts we have been working on these past few weeks. In our discussion, we will be addressing the main themes of the reading for example, adultery , violence, gender disparities, misogyny, etc. Another interesting point we wanted to share with the class is Shahzamans’ immediate change in state of mind when he catches his brother’s wife having a great time with a guy from a tree.  What is it about human nature that explains how the younger brother felt? As adultery represents one of the biggest theme in The thousand and One Night we thought it would be important to analyze how infidelity was dealt in the past compared to present day.

Throughout the story, women are not seeing in a positive light; from the first wife being disloyal, to the demon’s significant other sleeping with more than 90 men during her marriage. All of a sudden, we are presented to the Vizier’s daughter. “Would you sacrifice or risk your life if you were in Shahrazad’s shoes?”, “How are these women portrayed in the anecdotes and the story as a whole (Unfaithful wives, woman turned into a cow, belittled, etc.”).

To finish off the discussion, “What do all these stories have in common?”. One Thousand and One Nights is full of stories about the power of storytelling!

http://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAhKv6owkM

My mistake, I assumed I had already posted it.

-Jesette A. Marrero

https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICA-O7v8QsM

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Atg4I0OciuMHdE80R1RPemhnbXBZaVNlWFplbHdoNWc&output=html

http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed/index.html?source=0AvVgURTDB8IrdDNOM1VjQnExWDNuYnJVS0VSY1pNZWc&font=Bevan-PotanoSans&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650

sorry,i forgot to post my project

http://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAhI6grgoM

My Timeline Project, one day late, based on Marco Polo’s Travels of Marco Polo, translated by Signet Classics. Note that dates inputted are only to show an order of a selection of areas found in Book 1.

http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed/index.html?source=0AhIyMP1PFq64dE8yUWI4MWNSSzZlLUJqaHBiYlFmNHc&font=Bevan-PotanoSans&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650

https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAhPKbpAkM/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyJwsSBFRvdXIYgICAhPKbpAkMCxIJUGxhY2VtYXJrGICAgICg55gKDA