The Name of the Mother: Writing Illegitimacy (Routledge Library Editions: Women and Writing)

In this original and highly accomplished study, first published in 1994, Marie Maclean studies the writings of social rebels and explores the relationship between their personal narratives and illegitimacy. The case studies which Maclean examines fall into four groups: * those which stress alternative family structures and ‘female genealogies’ * those which pair female illegitimacy and revolution * those which question the deliberate refusal of the name of the father by the legitimate * those which study the revenge of genius on the society which excludes it Skilfully interweaving feminist theory, French literary criticism, social and cultural history, deconstruction and psychoanalytic theory, Maclean traces the place of these personal narratives of illegitimacy in history and their use in theory, from Elizabeth I to Freud, Sartre and Derrida. __The Name of the Mother__ will be of vital interest and importance to any student of critical theory, feminist philosophy, French or cultural studies. First published in 1994, Marie Maclean studies the writings of social rebels and explores the relationship between their personal narratives and illegitimacy. Skilfully interweaving feminist theory, French literary criticism, social and cultural history, deconstruction and psychoanalytic theory. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Original Title Page 6 Original Copyright Page 8 Dedication 9 Table of Contents 10 Preface 12 1 Performances of Exclusion 16 2 Myth and Psychoanalysis: Legitimate and Illegitimate 31 The Traditional Mythology of the Exception 33 The Freudian Attempt to Universalise the Particular 39 The Private Uses of Mythology 52 3 Mythical Histories, Historical Myths 58 4 A Female Genealogy: The En-Gendering of George Sand 79 5 Opposition and Revolution: Olympe de Gouges and the Rights of the Dispossessed 102 6 The Male/Female Messiah: Flora Tristan 121 7 My Mother the Revolution: Louise Michel 141 8 Symbolic Delegitimation 157 Stendhal and the Mother’s Line 158 Nerval and the Maternal Space 162 Three Baudelairean Narratives 165 Sartre the ‘Faux-Bâtard’ 172 9 ‘Better to Reign in Hell...’ 179 Giving Birth to My Grandmother: Leduc 182 Genet: The Flowering of the Name 190 10 Delegitimation by Proxy 201 Freud 204 Sartre 210 Derrida 218 11 Conclusion 227 Notes 233 Bibliography 259 Index 274 Myth,Psychoanalysis,Female Genealogy,Opposition,Delegitimation In this original and highly accomplished study, Marie Maclean studies the writings of social rebels and explores the relationship between their personal narratives and illegitimacy. The case studies which Maclean examines fall into four different groups which: • stress alternative family structures and `female genealogies'• pair female illegitimacy and revolution • question the deliberate refusal of the name of the father by the legitimate • study the revenge of genius on the society which excludes it. Skilfully interweaving feminist theory, French literary criticism, social and cultural history, deconstruction and psychoanalytic theory, Maclean traces the place of these personal narratives of illegitimacy in history and theory, from Elizabeth I to Freud, Sartre and Derrida. In this original and highly accomplished study, Marie Maclean studies the writings of social rebels and explores the relationship between their personal narratives and illegitimacy. The case studies which Maclean examines fall into four groups: those which stress alternative family structures and 'female genealogies'; those which pair female illegitimacy and revolution; those which question the deliberate refusal of the name of the father by the legitimate and those which study the revenge of genius on the society which excludes it This 8-volume collection contains titles originally published between 1976 and 2004. It covers women's writing from a variety of perspectives, exploring the options open to women writers through the centuries, which allowed women's voices to be heard through their writing.