Kathleen HART, Revolution and Women's Autobiography in Nineteenth-Century France
Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, collection "Faux Titre", 2004, 196 p.
ISBN : 9042017015
Here for the first time is a book devoted exclusively to the topic of women's autobiography in nineteenth-century France. Tracing the rise of autobiography in relation to women's domestic confinement, Kathleen Hart demonstrates how Flora Tristan, George Sand, and Louise Michel transformed the genre.
Inspired by Romantic socialism, each of these remarkable autobiographers links the story of her personal development to socio-historic change. In the wake of the 1830 Revolution, Tristan chronicles social unrest as she relates her progressive transformation into humanity's “Woman Guide” in Peregrinations of a Pariah (1838). Writing in the aftermath of the 1848 Revolution, Sand consolidates her role as a mediator between the rich and the poor in Story of My Life (1854). A legend of the 1871 Paris Commune, Michel establishes herself as the poet and prophet of a mythical Revolution yet to come in her Memoirs (1886). Exploring the dynamic interplay between revolution and feminist acts of self-affirmation, Revolution and Women's Autobiography in Nineteenth-Century France will appeal to scholars of history, French culture, literature, and women's studies.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Preface
I Women, Revolution, and the French Autobiographical Tradition
II Tracing New Routes: Flora Tristan's Peregrinations of a Pariah
III George Sand's Quest For Solidarity in Story of My Life
IV Living For Revolution: Louise Michel's Memoirs
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index