SOURCE: "Cherchez la Femme: Feminist Criticism and Marie de France's 'Lai de Lanval'," in Romance Notes, Vol. XXXIV, No. 3, Spring, 1994, pp. 263-73.

In the following essay, Kinoshita argues that in the lai "Lanval," the title character's ultimate rejection of chivalric society is an expression of Marie de France's feminism.

In any discussion of woman's voice in medieval French literature, the works of Marie de France are a natural point of departure. The putative author of a collection of fables, the hagiographic Espurgatoire Seint Patriz and the celebrated Lais, she is among the earliest attested female poets in the Romance vernacular; together with Christine de Pizan at the other end of the Middle Ages, she has been the focus of numerous feminist rereadings. But just what does it mean to speak of the "female voice" of an author who exists as little more than a name? In this paper...