Conclusion

Summary

THE AIM OF THIS BOOK has been to investigate the function of the category “woman” in sixteenth-century chapbooks and other prose texts, as well as in legal documents, Polizeiordnungen, from sixteenth-century Strasbourg. What conclusions, if any, can be drawn from the discussion of the various texts? In the introduction it was assumed that there are ruptures in the representation of woman — despite the seemingly clear dichotomy between man and woman in these texts — and that this can only be shown clearly by looking at the representation of woman in her relation to man.

The relationship between man and woman as described in Wickram's Schwänke is focused on the communication between spouses. The female characters make their voices heard and are allowed to do so, but only in order to serve “man” better. Their prime function is to help the male characters to become better men. While these stories also stress the negative aspects of their female characters, the women are not presented as representative for all womankind. “Woman” is thus not necessarily evil, nor does she bear all the blame for her disagreements with “man.” She is given the power to make herself heard and makes use of her rights without always misusing them. The stories found in Montanus's and Frey's chapbooks focus on sex, but the women — who are constantly talking, nagging, gossiping — are not allowed a language that makes communication with the other sex or the expression of feelings or desires possible. Their imperfect language shows their inferiority as human beings, but silence can also express something else. Honor can be saved in cases of pre- or extramarital sex only when nobody besides husband, wife, and lover — those immediately involved — finds out what has happened. When it becomes official, when the secret is no longer a secret but the subject of open discussion, the social order is threatened. Silence can therefore be seen as a way of communicating the unspeakable in the Schwänke.

Wickram is not interested in detailed descriptions of human sexuality. He strives toward a harmonious world by presenting good and bad examples. Frey and Montanus, however, seem to have abandoned hope. They claim to show the world as it is, but in reality describe the world that they fear.