Lewis C. Seifert, Manning the Margins: Masculinity and Writing in Seventeenth-Century France (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009)
978-0-472-05058-1
Over the past three decades, a rich body of scholarship has uncovered the crucial roles women played in seventeenth-century France, a period often reduced to "classical" male authors and "absolutist" kings. But the clearer perspective we now have of women has exposed the need to take a fresh look at men and masculinity. Through his reading of a wide range of canonical and minor texts, Lewis C. Seifert charts a course toward a more complex understanding of gender during this seminal period.
Examining ideals of polite masculine conduct, the figure of the salon man, representations of male same-sex desire, and the case of a male cross-dresser, Manning the Margins shows how elite men defined themselves in relation to women and other men and argues that dominant masculinity cannot always eclipse marginalized masculinities. The theoretical material and historical questions Seifert addresses will appeal not only to scholars and students in French studies and early modern studies, but also to historians as well as those interested in gender studies, sexuality studies, and transgender studies.
Contents
Note on Translations xi
Introduction 1
Part One Civilizing the Margins
1 The Chevalier de Méré's Quest for Honnête Masculinity 21
2 Effeminacy and Its Meanings from Court to Salon 57
3 Vincent Voiture and the Perils of Galanterie 98
4 Madeleine de Scudéry's Tender Masculinity 117
Part Two Sexuality and the Body at the Margins
5 Writing Sodomy: Satire, Secrets, and the “Self ” 151
6 Border Crossings: For a Transgendered Choisy 207
Afterimage 246
Notes 251
Bibliography 305
Index 323
Lewis C. Seifert
Department of French Studies
Brown University
Box 1961
Providence, RI 02912-1961
(401) 863-1029 (office)
(401) 863-7344 (fax)
http://research.brown.edu/myresearch/Lewis_C._Seifert