Professional Summary
Heather Arden specializes in medieval French literature. She did her graduate work at New York University, where she received her doctorate in 1974. Professor Arden offers both undergraduate and graduate courses about medieval women; her course about "Medieval Fantasy, Myth, and Legend" explores women's roles in medieval romance, saints' lives, and poetry. She also teaches twentieth-century French women writers including Beauvoir, Colette, Sarraute, and Duras. Much of her scholarship focuses on the Romance of the Rose; in addition to publishing a critical study and an annotated bibliography of the Rose, she has directed two NEH summer seminars for schoolteachers on the poem. Professor Arden has presented a number of papers on the courtly romances of the Middle Ages and on the Lais of Marie de France-one of her current areas of interest. She has published articles on Christine de Pizan, including one on her poem about Joan of Arc.
Keywords
French literature Women's Studies