What is Paronomasia

In creating her own particular style and legitimizing her status as a literary woman, a reflection on the female condition emerges from her work. This chapter considers two key texts: Cité des dames and Epistre Othea. The author's aim in the latter may not initially seem to be the exploration of women's dignification, since we are dealing with a text in which a goddess, called Othéa, teaches the young Hector morality. The creation of a new female mythological figure, however, establishing a parallel with Plutarch, as well as the positive reappraisal of some mythological characters reveals that Epistre Othea implicitly proposes a reflection on female rehabilitation. The introduction into this corpus of Ovide moralisé and the 15th century translation of Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, which served as a reference for Pizan, is therefore highly significant.