The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France: Women Writ, Women Writing (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World)

In its six case studies, The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France works out a model for (early modern) gender, which is articulated in the introduction. The books comprises essays on the construction of women: three in texts by male and three by female writers, including Racine, Fenelon, Poulain de la Barre, in the first part; La Guette, La Fayette and Sevigne, in the second. These studies thus also take up different genres: satire, tragedy and treatise; memoir, novella and letter-writing. Since gender is a relational construct, each chapter considers as well specific textual and contextual representations of men. In every instance, Stanton looks for signs of conformity to-and deviations from-normative gender scripts.The Dynamics of Gender adds a new dimension to early modern French literary and cultural studies: it incorporates a dynamic (shifting) theory of gender, and it engages both contemporary critical theory and literary historical readings of primary texts and established concepts in the field. This book emphasizes the central importance of historical context and close reading from a feminist perspective, which it also interrogates as a practice. The Afterword examines some of the meanings of reading-as-a-feminist. In its six case studies, The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France works out a model for (early modern) gender, which is articulated in the introduction. The book comprises essays on the construction of women: three in texts by male and three by female writers, including Racine, Fénelon, Poulain de la Barre, in the first part; La Guette, La Fayette and Sévigné, in the second. These studies thus also take up different genres: satire, tragedy and treatise; memoir, novella and letter-writing. Since gender is a relational construct, each chapter considers as well specific textual and contextual representations of men. In every instance, Stanton looks for signs of conformity to-and deviations from-normative gender scripts. The Dynamics of Gender adds a new dimension to early modern French literary and cultural studies: it incorporates a dynamic (shifting) theory of gender, and it engages both contemporary critical theory and literary historical readings of primary texts and established concepts in the field. This book emphasizes the central importance of historical context and close reading from a feminist perspective, which it also interrogates as a practice. The Afterword examines some of the meanings of reading-as-a-feminist. - From publisher's website Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 12 Part I Women Writ 46 1 Recuperating Women and the Man Behind the Screen: (Un)classical Bodies in Les caquets de l’accouchée (1622)? 48 2 The Daughters’ Sacrifice and the Paternal Order in Racine’s Iphigénie en Aulide 74 3 The Female Mind Reformed: Pedagogical Counter-Discourses, Radical and Regressive, Under Louis XIV 100 Part II Women Writing 132 4 The Heroine at War: Self-Divisions in La Guette’s “Extraordinary” Memoirs 134 5 From the Maternal Metaphor to Metonymy and History: Seventeenth-Century Discourses of Maternity and the Passion of Mme de Sévigné 160 6 Overreading, Without Doubt: Ambiguity and Irony in La Princesse de Montpensier 190 Afterword 218 Bibliography 226 Index 256 Recuperating Women And The Man Behind The Screen: (un)classical Bodies In Les Caquets De L'accouchée (1622) -- The Daughters' Sacrifice And The Paternal Order In Racine's Iphigénie En Aulide -- The Female Mind Reformed: Pedagogical Counter-discourses, Radical And Regressive, Under Louis Xiv -- The Heroine At War: Self-divisions In La Guette's Extraordinary Memoirs -- From The Maternal Metaphor To Metonymy And History: Seventeenth-century Discourses Of Maternity And The Passion Of Mme De Sévigné -- Overreading, Without Doubt: Ambiguity And Irony In La Princesse De Montpensier. Domna C. Stanton. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.