Feminism in France (RLE Feminist Theory) PDF Download

Author: Claire Duchen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113619150X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Feminism in France charts the evolution of the women’s liberation in France (MLF) from its emergence in 1968 to the present. Claire Duchen provides a lucid and compelling account of different feminist practices in France, clarifying the divergent political stances and the feminist theory that informs them. The remarkably clear introduction to French feminist theory, notably of Luce Irigaray and Helene Cixous, places it in its wider intellectual and political context and illuminates the complex connection of feminist thinking to other strands of contemporary French thought, represented by philosophers such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. The author’s role as ‘participant observer’ and her inclusion of interviews with French activists enhance her discussion, complementing the analytical with the immediacy of lived experience. ‘Claire Duchen’s lucid and succinct account is both timely and valuable.’ – Harriet Gilbert, New Statesman ‘Lucid, sympathetic and very helpful book on the French women’s movement ... will help us to understand the French feminist world much better.’ – Sian Reynolds, Women’s Review ‘An excellent introduction to French feminist theory which clarifies feminism in contemporary French thought, and includes illuminating interviews with activists.’ - SHE

Author: Claire Goldberg Moses
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780873958592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Histories of France have erased the feminist presence from nineteenth-century political life and the feminist impact from the changes that affected the lives of the French. Now, French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century completes the history books by restoring this missing--and vital--chapter of French history. The book recounts the turbulent story of nineteenth-century French feminism, placing it in the context of the general political events that influenced its development. It also examines feminist thought and activities, using the very words of the women themselves--in books, newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, diaries, speeches, and letters. Featured is a wealth of previously unpublished personal letters written by Saint-Simonian women. These engrossing documents reveal the nuances of changing consciousness and show how it led to an autonomous women's movement. Also explored are the relationships between feminist ideology and women's actual status--legal, social, and economic--during the century. Both bourgeois and working-class women are surveyed. Beginning with a general survey of feminism in France, the book provides historical context and clarifies the later vicissitudes of the "condition feminine."

Author: Lisa Greenwald
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496212010
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Daughters of 1968 is the story of French feminism between 1944 and 1981, when feminism played a central political role in the history of France. The key women during this epoch were often leftists committed to a materialist critique of society and were part of a postwar tradition that produced widespread social change, revamping the workplace and laws governing everything from abortion to marriage. The May 1968 events--with their embrace of radical individualism and antiauthoritarianism--triggered a break from the past, and the women's movement split into two strands. One became universalist and intensely activist, the other particularist and less activist, distancing itself from contemporary feminism. This theoretical debate manifested itself in battles between women and organizations on the streets and in the courts. The history of French feminism is the history of women's claims to individualism and citizenship that had been granted their male counterparts, at least in principle, in 1789. Yet French women have more often donned the mantle of particularism, advancing their contributions as mothers to prove their worth as citizens, than they have thrown it off, claiming absolute equality. The few exceptions, such as Simone de Beauvoir or the 1970s activists, illustrate the diversity and tensions within French feminism, as France moved from a corporatist and tradition-minded country to one marked by individualism and modernity.

Author: Claire G. Moses
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438413742
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Histories of France have erased the feminist presence from nineteenth-century political life and the feminist impact from the changes that affected the lives of the French. Now, French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century completes the history books by restoring this missing—and vital—chapter of French history. The book recounts the turbulent story of nineteenth-century French feminism, placing it in the context of the general political events that influenced its development. It also examines feminist thought and activities, using the very words of the women themselves—in books, newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, diaries, speeches, and letters. Featured is a wealth of previously unpublished personal letters written by Saint-Simonian women. These engrossing documents reveal the nuances of changing consciousness and show how it led to an autonomous women's movement. Also explored are the relationships between feminist ideology and women's actual status—legal, social, and economic—during the century. Both bourgeois and working-class women are surveyed. Beginning with a general survey of feminism in France, the book provides historical context and clarifies the later vicissitudes of the "condition feminine."

Author: Ellen Rooney
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139826638
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Feminism has dramatically influenced the way literary texts are read, taught and evaluated. Feminist literary theory has deliberately transgressed traditional boundaries between literature, philosophy and the social sciences in order to understand how gender has been constructed and represented through language. This lively and thought-provoking Companion presents a range of approaches to the field. Some of the essays demonstrate feminist critical principles at work in analysing texts, while others take a step back to trace the development of a particular feminist literary method. The essays draw on a range of primary material from the medieval period to postmodernism and from several countries, disciplines and genres. Each essay suggests further reading to explore this field further. This is the most accessible guide available both for students of literature new to this developing field, and for students of gender studies and readers interested in the interactions of feminism, literary criticism and literature.

Author: Dani Cavallaro
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441123504
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
French Feminist Theory offers an introduction to the key concepts and themes in French feminist thought, both the materialist and the linguistic/psychoanalytic traditions. These are explored through the work of a wide range of theorists: Simone de Beauvoir, Chantal Chawaf, Helene Cixous, Catherine Clement, Christine Delphy, Marguerite Duras, Colette Guillaumin, Madeleine Gagnon, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Nicole-Claude Mathieu, Michele Montreley, Monique Plaza, Paola Tabet and Monique Wittig. The book outlines the philosophical and political diversity of French feminism, setting developments in the field in the particular cultural and social contexts in which they have emerged and unfolded.

Author: Diana Holmes
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857457012
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The Third Republic, known as the ‘belle époque’, was a period of lively, articulate and surprisingly radical feminist activity in France, borne out of the contradiction between the Republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the reality of intense and systematic gender discrimination. Yet, it also was a period of intense and varied artistic production, with women disproving the critical nearconsensus that art was a masculine activity by writing, painting, performing, sculpting, and even displaying an interest in the new "seventh art" of cinema. This book explores all these facets of the period, weaving them into a complex, multi-stranded argument about the importance of this rich period of French women’s history.

Author: Christine De Pizan
Publisher: Persea Books
ISBN: 9780892553730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
In dialogues with three celestial ladies, Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, Christine de Pizan (1365-ca. 1429) builds an allegorical fortified city for women using examples of the important contributions women have made to Western Civilization and arguments that prove their intellectual and moral equality to men. Earl Jeffrey Richards' acclaimed translation is used nationwide in the most eminent colleges and universities in America, from Columbia to Stanford.

Author: Danielle Haase-Dubosc
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761996972
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Feminism in France has a long and continuous history which stretches right back to the Middle Ages where one finds texts by women denouncing inequality and the unjust subordination of their sex. In the late sixties and early seventies of this century, however, one finds a radical break with the feminism that preceded it. Marked by a libertarian culture influenced by Marxism, socialism and psychoanalysis, the feminism of the 1970s rejected the reformist and legal vision of women's emancipation, politicised the private sphere, and demanded social and political equality. This remarkable anthology of 35 texts, freshly translated for this volume, vividly maps the terrain of French feminism in its contemporary context from the 1970s onwards. Bringing together the seminal writings of both scholars and activists, the volume will help readers to grasp the questions, the challenges, and the progress of reflection. The essays are divided into seven sections: - The Women's Liberation Movement in France - Women and Creativity - Writing History / Rewriting History - Race, Class, Gender - Legal Bodies / Women's Bodies - Occupying / Capturing Political Space - Feminists Defetishize Theory - Feminist Mappings Overall, this absorbing volume gives voice to the extraordinary range of contemporary French feminism. Each section is preceded by an introduction which places the contributions in their material and social contexts to show how French feminism has evolved in response to concrete struggles and institutional constraints as much as to sophisticated intellectual discourse. Given its unique comparative framework and wide-ranging coverage, this volume will attract the attention of students and scholars in the fields of feminism, gender and women's studies, sociology, history, literature, anthropology, and philosophy.

Author: Françoise Vergès
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478008865
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
In the 1960s thousands of poor women of color on the (post)colonial French island of Reunion had their pregnancies forcefully terminated by white doctors; the doctors operated under the pretext of performing benign surgeries, for which they sought government compensation. When the scandal broke in 1970, the doctors claimed to have been encouraged to perform these abortions by French politicians who sought to curtail reproduction on the island, even though abortion was illegal in France. In The Wombs of Women—first published in French and appearing here in English for the first time—Françoise Vergès traces the long history of colonial state intervention in black women’s wombs during the slave trade and postslavery imperialism as well as in current birth control politics. She examines the women’s liberation movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s, showing that by choosing to ignore the history of the racialization of women’s wombs, French feminists inevitably ended up defending the rights of white women at the expense of women of color. Ultimately, Vergès demonstrates how the forced abortions on Reunion were manifestations of the legacies of the racialized violence of slavery and colonialism.