Shame or Agency? Perceptions of Modesty and the Female Body through Narratives of Rape and Sexual Violence in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron

Abstract

This article considers perceptions of the female body in Marguerite de Navarre’s L’Heptaméron. In the early modern period, a woman’s body was administered by a patriarchal system which used virtues of silence, chastity, and modesty to control women’s sexuality. In Marguerite’s novellas 2 and 62, I argue that she problematizes these virtues. Influenced by her courtly setting of debate and discussion, she examines the female condition through questions of agency, shame, and silence in stories of rape and sexual violence: Does a woman remain modest if she has been raped and discusses it? Can something positive come out of such a tragic situation? Marguerite creates a more nuanced understanding of the female body which highlights a woman’s possible strengths and limitations in early modern society. She scrutinizes the cultural conditions which women experience.