Publishing Women's Life Stories in France, 1647-1720: From Voice to Pr

Description

In this new study, Elizabeth Goldsmith continues her pursuit of issues treated in her earlier books on conversation, epistolary writing, and the female voice in literature. She examines how French women in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries first came to publish their private life stories; in doing so, she explores what the writers have to say about why they decide to write about... Read more

In this new study, Elizabeth Goldsmith continues her pursuit of issues treated in her earlier books on conversation, epistolary writing, and the female voice in literature. She examines how French women in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries first came to publish their private life stories; in doing so, she explores what the writers have to say about why they decide to write about themselves, what they choose to write, how they get their stories circulated and printed, and what they do to defend themselves against the threat to personal reputation and credibility that was implied by such public self-exposure. Goldsmith scrutinizes the autobiographical writing of six women, all of whom were, for different reasons, the objects of fairly intense publicity during their lifetime, at the historical moment when the idea of "publicity" via the printed word was still a new concept. Three of the women-Jeanne des Anges, Marie de l'Incarnation, and Jeanne Guyon-were charismatic religious figures whose writings were widely circulated. The other three writers-the sisters Hortense and Marie Mancini, and Madame de Villedieu-are more worldly, but like their spiritual counterparts, they undertook self-publication as a form of conversation with the world, and a way of participating in other forms of public discourse. Publishing Women's Life Stories in France, 1647-1720 considers the different forms that the life writing of these three women took: autobiographies; letter correspondences (which in four of the six cases have never before been published); trial transcripts; testimonials published as part of other authors' works; and written self-portraits that were circulated among friends. Drawing on the work of Michel de Certeau on voice and communities of readers in the 17th century, as well as the work of Roger Chartier and other historians of the book and print culture, Goldsmith retraces the complicated networks of human interaction that underlie these early a Read less

Contents: Introduction; Discovering New Worlds: Marie de l’ Incarnation and the Process of Autobiography; Public Sanctity and Private Writing: The Autobiography of Jeanne des Anges; Silent Communications: The Life and Letters of Jeanne Guyon; Scripting Errant Lives: The Memoirs of Hortense and Marie Mancini; Overheard Conversations: Madame de Villedieu’s Autobiographical Fictions; Conclusion; Index.

Author(s)

Biography

Elizabeth C. Goldsmith

Critics' Reviews

’... a rich and suggestive book that looks not just at how women recount their lives, but also why they choose to do so for a public through print. ... Elegantly and accessibly written ... will appeal equally to those interested in women's lives and women's writing... The stories they have left us, engagingly presented here, are the evidence of their agency as well as their passions.’ Dena Goodman, Professor of History and Women's Studies, University of Michigan 'For comprehensive collections serving upper-division undergraduates through faculty.' Choice 'This book, which adds greatly to our understanding of the development of the early novel in France, should be of invaluable assistance to scholars of the classical period, who have a special interest in novelistic conventions and/or in women's studies.' Biography 'Goldsmith's remarkable archival work on the correspondence of these authors has allowed her to reveal aspects of their writings that a reading of the published memoirs alone could never provide. The story of the editing and receptionof these texts is as fascinating as the story of the lives of the women who wrote them. Publishing Women's Life Stories in France is the fourth volume in an exciting new series from Ashgate, entitled Women and Gender in the Early Modern World and edited by Allyson Poska and Abby Zanger. If the other volumes live up to the standard set by this one, this series will become a must for scholars of the early modern period.' H-France Reviews

Publishing Women's Life Stories in France, 1647-1720 From Voice to Print

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Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

Critics' Reviews

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