The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France - 9781472442017

Taylor & Francis

The Dynamics of Gender in Early Modern France adds a new dimension to the field of early modern French literary and cultural studies by incorporating dynamic, shifting notions of gender and engaging with contemporary critical theory in an effort to gauge the specifics of textual conformity and resistance to norms. This book emphasizes the central importance of historical context and close reading from a feminist perspective, which it also interrogates as practice. > 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, F\u00E9nelon, Poulain de la Barre, in the first part; La Guette, La Fayette and S\u00E9vign\u00E9, in the second. These studies thus also take up different genres: satire, tragedy and treatise; memoir, novella and letter-writing. Since gend.