Download or read book The Allegory of Female Authority written by Maureen Quilligan and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first professional female writer, Christine de Pizan (1363-1431) was widowed at age twenty-five and supported herself and her family by enlisting powerful patrons for her poetry. Her Livre de la Cité des Dames (1405) is the earliest European work on women's history by a woman. An allegorical poem that revises masculine traditions, it asserts and defends the authority of women in general and of its author in particular. In this generously illustrated book, Maureen Quilligan provides a persuasive and penetrating interpretation of the Cité.