France in The Book of the Body Politic of Christine de Pizan: Sovereign, Subject, and Country

Öz

Christine de Pizan, born in Venice in 1367 and spent her life in France, is considered to be the first professional female writer of the Middle Ages. Thanks to the connections bequeathed to her by her father, Thomas of Pisa, who served as the court astrologer of the King of France, and her husband, Etienne, the royal secretary of Charles V, she gained a certain reputation as a court writer and commissioned by aristocratic families. However, apart from copying and writing commissioned books, she also left many both verse and prose works behind. Christine, who stood out in the fight against misogyny in medieval social gender, left a well-deserved mark on European history with her struggle and work on this issue. Although she came to France from Venice at a young age, Christine felt connected to France and to the kingdom, which in her mind meant France during her time, and wrote down her views on politics. The subject of this study is the ideas of Christine de Pizan, a versatile writer who left her mark on the intellectual infrastructure of the transition from the Late Medieval Ages to the Renaissance, in her work Livre du corps de policie [The Book of the Body Politic] about the sovereign, subject and the relations between them. The fact that “France”, which is at the centre of these relations, is handled by Christine as a concept that is the source of national identity rather than being a space will be evaluated in the axis of the meaning she attributes to it. The study will also focus on the main lines of Christine’s own life, which was the source and shape of the development of political theory, and the political climate in which she lived.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Christine de Pizan
• The Book of the Body Politic
• France
• political theory

Pisalı Christine’nin Siyasî Beden’inde Fransa: Hükümdar, Tebaa ve Ülke

Öz

1367 yılında Venedik’te dünyaya gelen ve hayatını Fransa’da geçiren Pisalı Christine, Orta Çağ’ın ilk profesyonel kadın yazarı olarak kabul edilir. Fransa kralının saray astroloğu olarak görev yapmış bulunan babası Pisalı Thomas ve V. Charles’ın kraliyet sekreterliği makamında bulunmuş eşi Etienne’nin kendisine miras bıraktığı bağlantılar sayesinde, aristokrat aileler tarafından görevlendirilen bir saray yazarı olarak belirli bir üne kavuşmuştur. Ancak kendisine ısmarlanan kitap kopyalama ve yazma işlerinin dışında da gerek nazım gerek nesir türünde pek çok eser yazmıştır. Orta Çağ toplumsal cinsiyetinde kadın düşmanlığı ile mücadelede öne çıkan Christine, bu konudaki mücadele ve çalışmalarıyla Avrupa tarihinde haklı bir iz bırakmıştır. Fransa’ya küçük yaşta Venedik’ten gelmiş olmasına rağmen kendisini Fransa’ya ve yaşadığı dönemde, onun zihin dünyasında Fransa demek olan kraliyete bağlı hisseden Christine, siyaset üzerine görüşlerini de kaleme almıştır. Bu çalışmanın konusu Geç Orta Çağ’dan Rönesans’a geçiş sürecinin düşünsel altyapısında iz bırakmış çok yönlü bir yazar olan Pisalı Christine’nin Livre du corps de policie [Siyasî Beden] adlı eserindeki hükümdar, tebaa ve ikisi arasındaki ilişkilere dair fikirleridir. Bu ilişkilerin odağında yer alan “Fransa”nın Christine tarafından bir mekân olmaktan ziyade ulus kimliğine kaynaklık eden bir kavram olarak ele alınışı, ona yüklediği anlam ekseninde değerlendirilecektir. Çalışmada ayrıca Christine’nin siyaset teorisinin gelişimine kaynaklık eden ve onu şekillendiren kendi hayatı ve bu hayatın içinde geçtiği siyasî iklimin ana hatları üzerinde durulacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Pisalı Christine
• Siyasî Beden
• Fransa
• Siyaset teorisi

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