The Awards Committee of the "Society for the Study of Early Modern Women" has selected Anne Larsen's critical edition of "Les Secondes Oeuvres" (Second Works) by Madeleine and Catherine des Roches for a 1998 Edition Honorable Mention.
The Awards Committee of the "Society for the Study of Early Modern Women" has selected Anne Larsen's critical edition of "Les Secondes Oeuvres" (Second Works) by Madeleine and Catherine des Roches for a 1998 Edition Honorable Mention.
The award was announced on Friday, Oct. 29, during
the Society's General Meeting at the Sixteenth Century
Studies Conference in St Louis, Mo. Larsen's book was one
of three works to receive recognition from the Society in
the "Editions" category this year.
Larsen's 410-page edition appeared with Droz, a publisher in
Geneva, Switzerland, that specializes in critical editions
and studies of literary texts from antiquity to the present.
Larsen also recently published with Droz her
critical edition of "Les Missives" (Letters), the third and
final volume of the works of the Des Roches. The 450-page
edition contains the first adaptation in French of
Claudian's epic poem "De raptu Proserpinae" (The Rape of
Proserpina), and 100 personal letters, the first such
letters published by women in France. Larsen's edition of
their first volume "Les Oeuvres" (Works) appeared in 1993.
Larsen's three-volume effort is the first edition
of the works since their original publication in the 16th
century.
Madeleine and Catherine des Roches, a mother-
daughter team who were members of the gentry of Poitiers in
south-western France, published their works between 1578 and
1586. They held a salon which hosted numerous writers,
poets and professionals. Catherine refused to marry so that
she could go on writing and publishing with her mother.
Larsen noted that the two women, who she said were
remarkably well-educated for their time, were among the
first to argue in print for the equality of men and women
and to protest the way that women of their day were treated.
They both died in 1587 of the plague.
Larsen earned her bachelor's degree from Hope
College, and her master's and doctorate from Columbia
University. She came to Hope as an associate professor of
French in 1984 and became full professor in 1993.
She is currently working with Michael Brinks, a
Hope senior from Portage, on a collaborative translation of
the works of Madeleine and Catherine des Roches.