Figurations of the Feminine in the Early French Women's Press, 1758-1848

Figurations of the Feminine is the first work in English to assess the most significant publications which make up this diverse, yet critically neglected, medium. It traces the evolving representations of womanhood that appear over the first ninety years of womens journals in France, challenging the critical commonplaces which have been applied to the womens press since its genesis.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 01 March 2022
Publisher: Liverpool University Press

In this groundbreaking exploration, Siobhán McIlvanney delves into the origins of the women's press in France. Figurations of the Feminine emerges as the pioneering work in English to critically evaluate the most significant publications that shape this diverse yet overlooked medium. It traces the evolving representations of womanhood that emerge throughout the first ninety years of women's journals in France, offering a profound insight into the feminist content that permeates these publications. McIlvanney's insightful interpretations challenge the prevailing notion of the women's press as an idealized and hyper-feminized realm, inhabited by intellectually idle readers and writers who disseminate and legitimize a limited range of patriarchal stereotypes and conventional ideas. Through meticulous textual analyses of various generic subsections, including literary journals, fashion magazines, domestic press, and explicitly politicized outputs, Figurations of the Feminine dismantles the critical commonplaces applied to the women's press since its inception, both in France and internationally. It showcases the political richness of this medium and provides privileged perspectives on female self-expression and the everyday lives of French women from diverse social backgrounds during a pivotal historical period.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781802070163