Lady philosophy and the construction of poetic authority in Jean de Meun, Dante, and Chaucer

Female personifications play a significant role in the expression of intellectual ideas that shape much of early western culture. Since many abstract terms such as natura and veritas are feminine nouns in Latin, they are represented artistically as women, each bearing what the author purports to be the proper traits of the idea they represent. Thus, images of women are embedded in the historical development of discourses on ethics, philosophy and theology. Because of the large number of such representations, more studies are required that ask questions such as: How does the representation of these ideas as female influence the way they are defined and discussed? And what does this tell us about gender and intellectual discourse from each era?; My dissertation addresses these questions by charting the transformations of Philosophia, from Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae , to medieval texts. Boethius' Philosophy makes for an interesting study because of the paradoxical role she plays both as the personification of philosophy and as a female figure. She is represented as a woman, due to grammatical conventions of the Latin word philosophia. And, yet, she lectures with academic training that, historically, women traditionally were not given, except for a noted few. Overall, Philosophy performs an important task of western philosophy: she redefines political power, cultural authority, and rhetorical practice.; Taking a cue from Boethius, several influential medieval poets created their own vision of Philosophy to do the same. From Philosophy's prototype, Jean de Meun shapes Reason, whose lectures on love and sexuality give way to questions of authority and interpretation in the Roman de la Rose . Dante, in Il Convivio, turns Philosophy into a donna gentile in order to establish his role as vernacular poet and cultural authority; however, the shifting balance of power between Dante and Philosophy renders his authority tangential upon her approval of his verse. Finally, Chaucer melds his Lady Philosophy with a monstrous Lady Fame in the House of Fame. This is Chaucer's dark vision of Boethius, where authority and authorship are not tied to an idea of ultimate good, but to changeable systems of patronage and profit.