‘The Most Deformed Woman in France’: Marguerite de Valois’s Monstrous Sexuality in the Divorce satyrique-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

‘The Most Deformed Woman in France’: Marguerite de Valois’s Monstrous Sexuality in the Divorce satyrique

Published:2020-11-09 Issue: Volume: Page:
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Container-title:Exceptional Bodies in Early Modern Culture
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Author:

Tresfels Cécile¹

Affiliation:

1. Williams College

Abstract

The anonymous satirical Divorce satyrique (1660) stages the fake confession of Henri IV, king of France, who justifies his divorce from Marguerite de Valois by her monstrous sexuality, describing her as ‘the most deformed woman in France’. This chapter explores how sexuality and monstrosity are linked to representations of feminine power within the context of general satire against the Valois family during the French Wars of Religion. Additionally, it shows how this violent pamphlet is symptomatic of a transitional period in which the definition of monstrosity evolves from physical to internal abjection. This cultural transition allows the writer to bring the sexual shaming of a woman to a new misogynistic level that essentializes the concept of female depravity.

Publisher

Amsterdam University Press

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