A book to look up: Sixteenth Century French Women Writers Marguerite d’Angoulême, Anne de Graville, the Lyonnese School, Jeanne de Jussie, Marie Dentière, Camille de Morel
Åkerlund , Ingrid

This would be helpful:
The Feminist Encyclopedia of French Literature. Ed. Eva Sartori. Westport, Connecticut: 1999.
- posted by Liz @ 8:21 AM

 
sadness

As I keep working I feel overwhelming sadness at the loss from history of these women; politicians, writers, freethinkers. All we hear is "the scribbling trollope" or "courtesan and mother of Agnathocleia, mistress of Ptolemy", and until I dig deeper I can't find the powerful person underneath. What is rape if not a denial of agency, of existence? Simultaneous denial of worth and thievery of worth? The rape of history leaves me sad, disgusted, depressed, despairing. I go back to my 11th edition Britannica and at least I find Genlis, though the way she is described makes my stomach twist with hatred for its grudging acknowledgment that Genlis was famous and prolific, but then the insinuations that this was because she slept her way to the top... You know... I deeply understand the women I know and the profundity of their "whatEVER".
- posted by Liz @ 11:22 PM