Gynaeceum, sive theatrum mulierum

Modellierung von Weiblichkeit in enzyklopädischen Wissenstheatern

Abstract

The Theatrum Literature of early modern times presents the knowledge of the era in terms of stage. Furthermore, it adopts a paternalistic point of view on the existing order of knowledge in which women only play a marginal role. This article tries to tackle the role of women as subjects and objects of encyclopedic knowlegde representation in which they are conceptualised as stereotyped objects, targeted in terms of a moralistic and didactic discourse and become possible addressees of that very kind of literature. The paper focuses on constructing programmes of gender in four works belonging to Theatrum Literature. It analyses the Theatrum-metaphor putting an emphasis on its productivity and functionality in different case studies. Furthermore, these case studies seem to display an all-embracing pattern moving chronologically from encyclopaedic knowledge to fiction. This paradigm is sketched out in the present paper indicating a desideratum in the area of research on Theatrum Literature.