Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


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1. Record Number: 11819
Author(s): Cestaro, Gary P.
Contributor(s):
Title : ...quanquam Sarnum biberimus ante dentes...: The Primal Scene of Suckling in Dante's De vulgari eloquentia [In his treatise on language, Dante foregrounds suckling imagery and the importance of the maternal body. This maternal imagery stems from a long tradition of representing the allegorical figure of Grammatica (grammar) as a nurse. According to psychoanalytic theory, the assumed natural primacy of the vernacular as a mother tongue (a native language acquired before Latin) evokes a primal scene of union with the mother (a state that precedes linguistic communication in human development). Nonetheless, the rationalistic male grammarian perpetually struggles to obscure the feminine origins of speech in order to maintain strict gender boundaries. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
Source: Dante Studies , 109., ( 1991):  Pages 119 - 147.
Year of Publication: 1991.