Misogyny and the Trends of a European Success: The French Prose Roman des sept sages de Rome

Abstract:Since the thirteenth Century, the Old French Roman des sept sages de Rome has given birth to a wide narrative tradition all over Europe. This paper discusses the misogynistic aspects of the Seven Sages' tales collection in the context of its impressive difffusion. Several embedded tales such as Tentamina occur for the fijirst time in French version and clearly reinforce this tendency. However, scrutiny of the interactions between frame story and embedded tales enable us to a very powerful literary example of the polyphonic use of tale telling, we can mitigate this statement. In spite of its misogynistic tone, the clash of agonistic points of view make it possible to hear the fijictitious voice of a women's protest against the homogeneity of masculine knowledge and power. Facing this question, we will rely on the widespread French Prose Version A of the Roman des sept sages that is at the root of the fijirst European expansion of this narrative tradition.