DEFENDING CHASTITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE AND PROXY: FEMALE AGENCY AND THE POLITICS OF INTERPRETATION IN THE HEPTAMERON
Keywords:
Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron, Female agency, Chastity and honor, Reputation and interpretation, Early modern genderAbstract
This essay examines how women in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron protect and negotiate their reputations in response to experiences of personal adversity, arguing that female agency in the collection operates through two strategies: performative self-fashioning and agency by proxy. Close readings of Stories two, four, twenty two, and sixty two show that a woman’s honor depends on how her behavior is interpreted rather than on the facts of the assault. The princess of Story four survives by controlling her words, her conduct, and even the appearance of her thoughts, while the noblewoman of Story sixty two demonstrates how a single slip can undo years of such control. The muleteer’s wife of Story two secures an unquestioned reputation only through martyrdom, and Marie Héroët of Story twenty two is believed only after her testimony passes to a brother and a queen whose authority society already trusts. The essay concludes that reputation in the Heptameron is produced through interpretation, and that women’s agency lies in navigating that process rather than in escaping it.References
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