Home > Feminism > Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Diana H. Coole (Essay Date 1988)
Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages - Diana H. Coole (Essay Date 1988)
DIANA H. COOLE (ESSAY DATE 1988)
SOURCE: Coole, Diana H. "The Origin of Western Thought and the Birth of Misogyny." In Women in Political Theory: From Ancient Misogyny to Contemporary Feminism, pp. 10-28. Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books, 1988.
In the following excerpt, Coole probes the sources of Western misogyny in the philosophy, literature, and social structure of classical Greece.
Western political philosophy first flourished in Athens, in the fourth century B.C.; it is the names of Plato and Aristotle that are most often associated with these origins. Their concern with arrangements for a just and stable state involved more than constitutional organization, however. Questions regarding the nature of virtue and the good life were meshed with broader inquiries regarding the status of knowledge; birth and death; the order of the universe. Such fundamental questions involved speculations about woman's...
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Primary Sources
- Pan Chao (Poem Date C. 1St Century)
- Yu Xuanji (Lyric Date C. 9Th Century)
- Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young
- Izumi Shikibu (Diary Date C. Early 11Th Century)
- Marie De France (Poem Date C. 12Th Century)
- Heloise (Letter Date C. 1163/64)
- Catherine Of Siena (Essay Date 1370)
- Birgitta Of Sweden (Essay Date C. 1377)
- Women In The Ancient World
- Women In The Medieval World
- Women In Classical Art And Literature
- Women In Medieval Art And Literature
- Classical And Medieval Women Writers
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