Final Project

Well the semester has finally come to a close and I have just finished my final project.  I chose to write a paper comparing St. Therese de Lisieux and St. Teresa de Avila, a Spanish mystic and Catholic female hero.  Thanks for visiting my blog and have a wonderful holiday!

-Madeleine

Other 20th Century Feminists

Benoîte Groult

Benoîte Groult is a French feminist writer.  Born in 1920, she was raised in Paris.  She studied literature until 1953 and went on to a career as a journalist.  Groult has published at least seven books.  Most deal with feminist issues such as misogyny and discrimination of women.  Groult has also written about the history of feminism.  One of her novels, Les vaisseaux du cœur, inspired the a 1992 film by Andrew Birkin called The Salt on Our Skin.  Groult's novels have a role in feminism.  They explore how fictional women choose to handle the feminist issues that appear in the novels and may influence Groult's audience.

Françoise Giroud

Françoise Giroud was a French writer, journalist, screenwriter, and politician.  She was born in Switzerland in 1916 to immigrant Jewish Turkish parents.  Giroud began working in cinema in the 1930s and went on to a career in screenwriting.  She wrote about thirty books during her life and was a journalist.  She was the editor of Elle magazine and L'Express, a magazine that she co-founded.  In the 1970s she began to become involved in French politics.  One of her goals was to "get France out of its rut", this goal was inspired by her visits to America after World War II.  One of the positions she held was Minister of Culture.  Giroud had experience in many different occupations.  I think her influence in popular French magazines really helped her express her ideas for her country.  She seems to have been a well loved female icon in France.

Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist.  Kristeva was born in 1941 and moved to France in the 1960s.  After publishing her first book, Semeiotikè, in 1969, she became very influential as a critical analyst of cultural theory and as a feminist writer.  Kristeva is a leading French feminist like Simone de Beauvoir.  Some of her ideas are controversial even to feminists.  I am do not feel that Kristeva is super heroic, but her writings and ideas are certainly important.  She brings up new thoughts about feminism and challenges feminist ideas, probably to keep other feminists thinking about what they believe is important for women today and women in the future.

Click these links for more on these women!

Julia Kristeva Wikipedia

Françoise Giroud Wikipedia

Benoîte Groult Wikipedia

20th Century Feminists - Simone Veil

Simone Veil was a French lawyer and Politician born in 1927.  Some of her most prestigious roles in politics include: Minister of Health, President of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France.  Veil was born to Jewish parents in Nice, France.  In 1944, her family was deported by Nazis to Auschwitz.  All of her family members, except for her sister Milou, died in concentration camps.  After the liberation of the concentration camp, Veil returned to France and resumed her studies.  At the University of Paris she met her husband, Antoine Veil.  At the beginning of her career, she worked as an attorney for the Ministry of Justice.  From 1974 - 1979, she was the Minister of Health.  The legislation she focused on helped pass laws that made access to contraception easier and led to the legalization of abortion in France.  One of her achievements was when she became the first female president for the European Parliament.

Simone's achievements in the political arena are very heroic.  She was successful in an often male dominated area of society, which I think other women can admire about her.  She is a feminist heroine for passing legislation that many feminists support.

Click these links for more on Simone Veil!

Simone Veil Wikipedia

20th Century Feminists - Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was a French author, existentialist philosopher, political activist, and feminist born in 1908.  When she was young, her father was said to have boasted that "Simone [thought] like a man!".  In 1929, Simone and Jean-Paul Sarte became a couple.  Sarte asked Beauvoir to marry him, but she refused and they became life partners.  Beauvoir also had many lovers, male and female, during her life.  One of Beauvoir's most well known and important works is The Second Sex.  The book is considered a major work of feminist philosophy.  Beauvoir and Sarte were both editors for a political journal called Les Temps Modernes, which began being published at the end of World War II.  Beauvoir was active in the French women's liberation movement in the 1970s and even signed the Manifesto of the 343 (a list of women who claimed to have had an abortion, abortion was illegal at the time).  Beauvoir died in 1986 at the age of 78 in Paris.

Simone de Beauvoir was certainly an influential woman during her time.  She was an important intellectual, prolific writer, and avid activist.  Her works came about at a time when women were beginning to organize and push for reforms that they believed were beneficial for women.  I think it would be interesting to know what would have happened with out Beauvoir's book, The Second Sex, which many feminists today are inspired by.  Beauvoir may be considered a feminist heroine for igniting new ideas about the female identity.

Click these links for more on Simone de Beauvoir!

Simone de Beauvoir Wikipedia

Simone de Beauvoir - Why I am a Feminist

Heroines of World War II - Maryse Bastié

Maryse Bastié is known for being the first French woman to cross the South Atlantic Ocean on a solo flight.  Maryse was born in 1898 into a poor French family.  Her father died when she was eleven so she had to start working to provide for her family.  She worked in a shoe factory in her youth and had an unsuccessful early marriage that left her with child and little money.  Maryse married a World War I pilot, who introduced her to the power of flight.  She became very passionate about flight, earning her pilot's license and hoping to buy her own plane.  After her husband died in 1926 in an airplane accident, Maryse began performing aerobatics to earn a living.  In 1927, she earned enough to buy her first plane, a Caudron C.109 (Maryse piloted a women's duration record of 26 hours and 47 minutes long flight in her C.109 in 1929).

A Caudron C.109 aircraft

By 1935 Maryse opened her flying school at the Orly Airport.  She served in the French Air Force during World War II, logging over 3,000 hours in the air, and earning the title Captain.  Among a few of her awards are the Harmon Trophy, which she received in 1931, and the honor of being named a commander of the Legion of Honor.  In 1952, Maryse died in a airplane accident.  As she was taking off, her plane crashed on the airfield.  She was buried in Paris.

Maryse Bastié was a hero for future female aviators.  She was as passionate about serving her country as other leading male aviators during the war.  I was kind of surprised at how involved women during tis time were involved in aviation.  Maryse seems very similar to Amelia Earhart, who was also very influential in aviation.

Visit these links for more on Maryse Bastié!

Maryse Bastié wikipedia

Maryse Bastié takes to the Air

Heroines of World War II - Lucie Aubrac

Lucie at age 90

Lucie Aubrac was really a remarkable woman.  She was quite literally a hero, as a member of the French Resistance, for her country, but she was also a hero for her family.  Lucie Aubrac was born in 1912.  In 1939, Lucie married Raymond Samuel, a young jewish man.  At the onset of World War II, Lucie and her husband were in danger.  Jews were being persecuted in France and this anti-Semitism forced the Samuel's to adopt the last name Aubrac.  When France fell to the Germans, Lucie and Raymond assisted in forming the Liberation South resistance group.  This branch of the French resistance published an underground newspaper, Libération.  On June 21st 1943, Raymond and another important member of the Resistance, Jean Moulin, were captured by the Gestapo.

At the time of her husband's capture, Lucie was pregnant with her second child.  Lucky for the Aubracs, there was a provision of French law that allowed those condemned to death to marry civilly (marriage in extremis).  Lucie saved her husband and the other captured resistance members by tricking the Gestapo captain into releasing her husband so that they could get "married".  On the day of their "marriage" Lucie and other Resistance members attacked the Germans transporting the prisoners.  They rescued everyone and had to leave France since their true identities had been revealed.  The Aubracs fled to London and raised their children in the United Kingdom for the remainder of the war.  Post-war, Lucie renewed her teaching license and began teaching history again.  She was also an activist for human rights and published her memoirs in a book which translated into English is called Outwitting the Gestapo.  Lucie died in 2007 near Paris.

I think it is pretty obvious that Lucie Aubrac was a very brave woman who believed strongly that the risks that she and her fellow Resistance members were taking were worth taking for the sake of their country.  When Raymond was captured, Lucie was able to keep her cool and do whatever she needed to do to save her husband and protect her family.

For more about Lucie visit these links!

Lucie Aubrac wikipedia

Lucie Aubrac obituary

Towards the end of this part of a documentary called Great Escapes of WWII,
Lucie and Raymond Aubrac tell their story of escape.

The Singer - Edith Piaf

Piaf in 1962

Édith Giovanna Gassion was born in December of 1915 and was abandoned by her mother at birth.  Her father, a street performer/acrobat, sent his daughter to live with his mother.  Edith's paternal grandmother ran a brothel and it was here that Edith was raised.  There is an interesting story about her time in the brothel in Normandy.  From the age of three to about seven, Edith was supposedly blind because she suffered from keratitis, inflammation of the cornea.  The prostitutes who were raising her pooled some of their money together so that young Edith could go on a pilgrimage honoring St. Therese de Lisieux.  After going on this pilgrimage, Edith's sight was restored!  In 1929, Edith left the brothel to join her father.  At 14 she began performing on the streets with her father and a young woman named Simone "Mômone" Berteaut, who may have been her half sister.  At 17, Edith and her boyfriend Louis Dupont had a daughter, Marcelle, who later died at age 2 of meningitis and neglect.

1935 was an important year for Edith.  She was discovered by a night club owner named Louis Leplée.  Leplée encouraged the budding artist and gave her gigs to sing in his nightclub, jump starting her career.  He also is attributed with giving her the stage name "La Môme Piaf" or "The Little Sparrow" and telling her to wear a black dress, the only outfit she would ever wear during performances.  Edith would eventually adopt the name Edith Piaf after Leplée's murder in 1936.  Around this time Edith began recording her first records.  Edith would go on to become one of France's greatest entertainers and had influence all around the world.

During World War II, Edith was sometimes called a traitor.  This was because she often sang for the German forces in occupied France.  She later defended her actions by stating that she was helping the French Resistance. Edith may have helped several people during the war including a Jewish man escaping German persecution.  She dated a Jewish pianist during the war and with contributions from her friend and songwriter Marguerite Monnot, wrote a song in subtle protest of the war.  Her songs may have been helpful in boosting the morale of French troops.

After suffering injuries caused by a car accident in 1951, Edith may have began abusing morphine and alcohol.  Edith Piaf continued singing up until 1963 when she died from liver cancer.  over 100,000 fans were present at her funeral in Paris.  Piaf's songs are still used today in films or just for personal enjoyment.  Her life also inspired several films and plays about her life.

I think Edith used her popularity appropriately, she was helpful during war times, and after the war she went on tours in the countries involved in the war including the United States and some European and Latin American countries.  Her patriotism to her country is evident by her involvement in occupied France.  Her popularity, even with the enemy, was helpful to the French Resistance's cause. Also the fact that she could rise above her impoverished beginnings to become a 20th century superstar is pretty amazing.  I enjoyed listening to one of her songs (posted below) and I really liked how she commanded the attention of the audience with nothing but her voice.  There are no distractions like crazy outfits or dubbed over voices, it is just her, in her trademark black dress.

For more about Edith Piaf visit these links!

Édith Piaf wikipedia

The Fashion Designer - Coco Chanel

Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in 1883,  Coco Chanel would become one of the most important female fashion designers of the early 20th century.  Chanel was born in Samur, France to a poor, at the time, unwed couple.  After Chanel's mother died, her father sent all of his daughters to a nearby convent.  There Chanel was educated and learned how to sew.  At 18 Chanel had to choose between joining the religious community or making her own way in the world.  She chose to leave.

Chanel found work as a seamstress, but would also sing in a cabaret often. She gained her nickname "Coco" because of her version of the popular song "Ko Ko Ri Ko".  Much of her early life Chanel did not care to recount and sometimes she would even make up stories of her past or deny certain facts about her past.  After her aspiration of a stage career failed, Chanel met one of her first lovers, Balsan.  She lived with him for about three years and was introduced to wealth and luxury for probably the first time in her life.  In 1908 she began her affair with Balsan's friend Arthur 'Boy' Capel.  They were together for nine years and Capel even helped finance Chanel's first shop.  He died in a car accident in 1919, a devastating event for Chanel.  Chanel would have other relationships in her life, but these initial affairs launched her into the next stage of her life.

Chanel's first shop was a boutique in Deauville.  She sold luxury casual clothing made from cheap jersey.  In 1916, after success in Deauville, Chanel opened another boutique in Biarritz.  Three years later in 1919, Chanel was registered a couturier and was able to establish a maison de couture.  Chanel enjoyed continued success and made the acquaintance of many important people including Winston Churchill.  During World War II, Chanel closed her store.  During this time she lived at the Hotel Ritz and even had a relationship with a German officer.  It is even believed that she worked as a Nazi agent for a time during the war.  She reopened her fashion house in 1954.  Chanel died at 87 years old in 1971.  I definitely skipped over certain parts of Chanel's life because it is very well documented and I could probably write five more paragraphs just on her biography!  Chanel is a heroine for women because as she said herself "[She] freed the body" from the constraints of corsets and other unnecessary or over the top elements of female attire in the years before.  She brought new things to women's fashion, daring things like the "Chanel" suit or the little black dress.

Learn more about Chanel at these links!

Coco Chanel - Voguepedia

Coco Chanel wikipedia

The Sculptor - Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and artist born in the winter of 1864.  Much of her childhood was spent moving from place to place with her family in the northern France countryside.  Her father worked with mortgages and banking.  In 1881, Camille went with her mother and younger siblings to live in Paris.  Her younger brother, Paul Claudel, would eventually become a poet and diplomat.  Camille and her family were living in the artistic Montparnasse area of Paris.  

During Camille's childhood, in the Villeneuve-sur-Fère region, she was inspired by the landscape and became passionate about stone and working with stone.  Camille began studying at the Académie Colarossi, an academy founded by an Italian sculptor.  There she was mentored by a sculptor named Alfred Boucher.  Boucher was well loved by his students, but he passed on their instruction to Auguste Rodin.  In 1884, Camille began working in Rodin's studio and she became his muse and lover.  Their intimate relationship ended in 1892 when Rodin refused to end his relationship with his wife.  Camille's mother did not approve of her daughter's involvement in the arts so Camille moved out.  Claudel was successful even after breaking things off with Rodin.  She did not need a man's influence of help to get attention for her artwork.

Camille began to appear mentally ill around 1905.  She was destroying her own sculptures, disappearing randomly, and appearing paranoid.  She was even known to accuse Rodin of stealing her ideas for new pieces of work and of plotting her death.  Soon after her father's death in early 1913, Paul had Camille admitted into an asylum.  Camille lived the last thirty years of her life in the asylum at Montfavet.  Reports from the asylum stated that she suffered from systematic persecution delirium based on false interpretations and imagination.  Over the years the staff at the asylum asked to have Camille released because they did not think that she was mentally unwell enough to be living there, but her family refused to have her released.  Her mother only allowed Paul to write Camille letters and when Camille died in 1943, Paul was the only member of her family who could be with her when she passed.

At least ninety of Camille's sculptures and drawings survive today and Camille's life has inspired a few plays/ballets and movies.  I am unsure as to why Camille is a heroine of France.  Her life seems very interesting and probably the most heroic thing she did was to study art during a time when women could not even study art at the École des Beaux-Arts.  She is surely inspirational for other female artists of that time.

More about Camille Claudel here!

Camille Claudel Wikipedia

Early 20th Century Women - St. Therese de Lisieux

This week I am presenting St. Therese de Lisieux to my class so since I don't need to journal on her I will post some pictures and a few YouTube videos!

Some links to more info about St. Therese!

Society of the Little Flower

Therese de Lisieux Wikipedia

Early 20th Century Women - Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was a prolific and acclaimed French writer of the early 20th century.  She has been proclaimed one of France's greatest female authors with about fifty written works attributed to her.  Colette was born in the Burgundy region of France in 1873.  During her childhood, Colette played piano and did well in school.  One of Colette's most well known works is her novel Gigi.  Published in 1944, Gigi was adapted into film and even into a play and Broadway musical.  Interestingly, Audrey Hepburn was chosen by Colette to play Gigi in the 1951 play adaptation.

In 1893, twenty year old Colette married her first husband Henry Gauthier-Villars, who was also a writer.  Henry published his work under the pen name "Willy".  The couple published the Claudine series together.  Colette left her first husband in 1906 and went to live with her friend, and lover, Natalie Clifford Barney.  Colette and the American expatriate salonist Natalie had a short lesbian affair and remained friends afterwards.  During this time, Colette worked in the music halls where she worked with and became intimate with Mathilde de Morny, a fellow performer.  In 1912, Colette was married for the second time.  She and her husband had a daughter named Colette de Jouvenel.  Sadly, Colette did not spend much time with her daughter.  During World War I, Colette wrote a ballet for the Paris Opera.  She also opened up her husband's estate to wounded soldiers.  For her "hospital" she was awarded the Legion of Honor.  In 1924, Colette divorced her husband after her affair with her stepson was discovered.  She would marry again in 1935.  Her third husband, Maurice Goudeket, wrote Colette's biography.  Her post-war works include Gigi and Chéri, two of her most famous novels.  Colette died in 1954.  Her books were surprising because of their often intimate themes, but they were clever and people enjoyed reading them which is why she became such a well-loved French author.

More about Colette here!

Colette Wikipedia

Project Gutenberg - Works by Colette
Colette: The Grit and Grandeur of a Paris Style Icon

Heroines of the 19th Century - Marie Curie

Marie Curie was an extremely important woman of science during the 19th century.  Marie was born in Poland when it was under Russian occupation.  Under Russian occupation, it was difficult for young Polish people to get an education that was not corrupted or influenced by the Russian regime.  So, Marie had to begin her studies in Warsaw's secret underground university, often called the Floating or Flying University.  The Flying University defied Russian occupation with its pro-Polish curriculum and its admittance of women in its classes.  Marie and her family struggled monetarily through most of her early life.  She took a position as a governess so that she could earn money to support her sister's studies in Paris.  While earning money to pursue her own studies, Marie educated herself further by reading and writing letters.

In 1891, Marie moved to Paris to stay with her sister while studying at the University of Paris.  Marie studied physics, chemistry, and mathematics.  After earning one of her degrees, Marie began her career when she decided to investigate the magnetic properties of metals.  She soon met her future husband, Pierre Curie, who was also a scientists and a teacher.  They began working on various projects together and eventually fell in love and got married.

Pierre and Marie Curie

In 1895, X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Roentegen and then in 1896 , Uranium was discovered to display X-ray like emissions. Marie was very interested in these studies and decided to work with uranium.  One of her first uranium discoveries was that the element could conduct electricity in the air around it.  This led to the important discovery that atoms are divisible from each other.  This initial work with uranium led to further research on the radioactivity of different elements and minerals.  Unfortunately, Marie and Pierre did not know about the risk they were taking by handling extremely radioactive elements without proper safety equipment.

The Curie Family

In 1897, Marie and Pierre's daughter Irène was born.  Marie got a position to teach at the École Normale Supérieure.  Her job as a teacher helped support her family as well as her research.  Marie and Pierre used a shed near the School of Physics and Chemistry as their laboratory.  After making her discoveries, Marie quickly published her work, knowing that if she did not somebody else would get the credit for doing similar work by publishing their findings before her.  In 1898, the Curie's published there discovery of polonium and radium, two radioactive elements, but it wasn't until 1910 that the Curie's successfully isolated pure radium.  The couple published many papers on their work.  One interesting paper was about how tumor-forming cancer cells, when exposed to radium, would die off faster than healthy cells.  In 1903, Marie earned her doctorate and she and Pierre were invited to give a presentation in London about radioactivity.  Unfortunately, because Marie was a woman she was not allowed to speak during the presentation, so Pierre had to do all the talking.

In 1903, Marie was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics for her research on radiation, making her the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize for her scientific work.  The next year Marie and Pierre had a second daughter, Ève, but in 1906 Pierre died after being struck by a horse-drawn vehicle.  After Pierre's death, the University of Paris granted Marie her husbands professorship position making her the first woman professor at that university.  During World War I, Marie was involved in the Red Cross Radiology Service and helped provide mobile X-ray technology.  After the war, she toured some parts of the world to raise funds for future radium research.  Marie died in 1934 from aplastic anemia, a disease often caused by exposure to radiation.  She and Pierre were interred in the Panthéon in Paris.

Visit these links for more on Marie Curie!

Marie Curie Wikipedia

Marie Curie Nobel Prize Bio

Heroines of the 19th Century - Flora Tristan

Flora Tristan was a French social and feminist activist in the early 19th century.  Flora was born in Paris in 1803.  Her father was a Spanish colonel and his family had a great deal of influence in Peru.  Flora's father died when she was four years old, but due to legal technicalities, her deceased father's lands and wealth were confiscated leaving Flora and her mother destitute.  Flora went to Peru in 1833 attempting to get her father's property back.  Though she was unable to get back her rightful inheritance,  Flora was certainly inspired by her stay in Peru.  She wrote a travel diary about her time there and published it with the title Pérégrinations d'une Paria.  Flora married a man named André Chazal in 1821.  Their marriage was a failure and Flora felt that she was enslaved by marriage.  She sought to separate from him, this separation was not granted until after her husband shot her.  Her experience of marriage and her travels to Peru and other countries helped fuel her desire to write about social issues and to take an active role in trying to fix the problems in society.  Her last work written in 1843, The Worker's Union, is a good example of her social and political activism.  Flora connected the working class's struggles with the struggles of all women.

"In the life of the workers, woman is everything.

  She is their providence.  If she is missing, everything is missing." 

-Flora Tristan

In 1844, Flora contracted yellow fever and died.  There is an association for women in Peru named after Flora Tristan.  It is called Centro de la mujer peruana Flora Tristán.  They have a website written in Spanish, but I believe that they provide legal help to women who may be suffering from domestic violence.  They also have an online library and their website can help direct those who wish to have an active role in social change get more information about what they can do to become involved.

Here are some links with more info on Flora Tristan!

Flora Tristan Wikipedia

Flora Tristan - The Woman Messiah

Centro de la Mujer Peruana website

Self-rescuing Princess Society - Flora Tristan

Heroines of the French Revolution - Madame Roland

Madame Roland was born in Paris in 1754.  She was very well educated, studying literature, music, and dance.  Roland had some schooling in a convent, where she was influenced by reading the work of Voltaire and Plutarch.  In 1780, she married the philosopher Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière.  This husband and wife team both became supporters of the French Revolution and were leaders of the Girondins.  Interestingly, Madame Roland and her husband had first identified with the Jacobin Club before defecting and creating the Girondin party.  Most of Roland's influence came from her "tweaking" of her husband's political letters and pamphlets.  Roland also had a salon at the Hotel Brittanique in Paris.  In 1793, during the Reign of Terror, Roland and other Girondins were arrested, their crime treason.  During her imprisonment, Roland wrote her memoirs and had them smuggled out of prison by her visitors.  Roland helped her husband escape Paris and was eventually guillotined in November 1793.  Her memoirs were published posthumously, allowing Madame Roland to continue influencing the formation of the French Republic.

More about Madame Roland can be found here!

Madame Roland Wikipedia

JSTOR Article on Madame Roland

Another JSTOR Article on Madame Roland

The Book of Days - Madame Roland

Heroines of the French Revolution - Charlotte Corday

Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont was a female supporter of the Girondins party and an assassin.  Charlotte was born in Normandy.  Her parents were minor members of the aristocratic class.  After her mother's death, her father sent his remaining children and Charlotte to an abbey, the Abbaye aux Dames, in Caen, Normandy.  There Charlotte had access to the writings of Plutarch, Rousseau and Voltaire. Charlotte was educated at the Abbey and probably lived there until 1791 when she began living with her cousin Madame Le Coustellier de Bretteville-Gouville in Caen.  Charlotte identified with the Girondin party, which was less radical and did not agree with the way the Revolution was evolving.  Charlotte became very influenced by Girondin speakers and leaders.  This influence would lead to Charlotte's plan to murder Jean-Paul Marat.

Marat was a journalist and major leader of the radical Jacobins, who implemented the Reign of Terror.  Charlotte, at only 24 years old, left her home in Caen and traveled to Paris.  She believed that Marat and his writings were influencing the people in a bad way and were contributing to the violence in the city and throughout the country.  Charlotte rented a room and bought a kitchen knife.  She wrote letters explaining her motives, Charlotte knew she was going to die for her actions and she accepted that her end would come from this plan.  Initially, she had planned to kill Marat in public since she had heard that he often went to the National convention to attend meetings.  She later discovered that he was at his home, suffering from a skin condition he had picked up while hiding in the Parisian sewers.

Charlotte went to Marat's home on the 13th of July, 1793.  She asked to speak with him twice before being admitted in the evening.  Marat was famously in his bathtub, soaking his putrifing sores.  Charlotte had only been allowed to visit because she was going to give him the names of some of her Girondin friends.  After telling Marat the names of her fellow Girondins, Charlotte stabbed him through his chest and straight through his heart with her kitchen knife.  Charlotte was arrested and put on trial for the assassination of Marat.  She testified that she alone had planned the murder.  She was sentenced to die by the guillotine like so many other people during the Terror.  On the 17th of July, Charlotte's hair was chopped off, she was loaded onto a tumbrel with several other people, and brought to the place of execution.  Charlotte was probably wearing a red dress, symbolizing that she was being executed for murder.  Charlotte was a heroine for willingly giving her life by ". . . [killing] one man to save a hundred thousand" from the Reign of Terror.

For more about Charlotte Corday click these links!

Charlotte Corday Wikipedia

The Bathtub Assassination of Marat

History and Women Blog - Charlotte Corday

Heroines of the French Revolution - Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges was a playwright, feminist, and abolitionist during the French Revolution.  Olympe was born Marie Gouze into a small bourgeois family.  Her father was a butcher and her mother was the daughter of a cloth merchant.  Olympe was convinced that she was the illegitimate daughter of a local nobleman, the Marquis de Pompigan, who had simply refused to acknowledge her.  It is believed that this is why she often stood up for illegitimate children in her writings.  In 1765, she married Louis Aubry, a man that she did not love.  He died early in their marriage and eventually Marie moved to Paris with her young son and took the name Olympe De Gouges.

In Paris, Olympe gained access to some salons and had the opportunity to meet other writers and political figures.  Olympe began her writing career in the 1780s.  She was a very prolific writer with as many as forty works attributed to her writing.  She wrote several plays such as Zamore and Mirza and L'Esclavage des Negres.  Most of her work was about social issues, such as slavery and the rights of women.  One of Olympe's most well known works is The Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen.  Olympe wrote her own women oriented Declaration in response to The Declaration of the Rights of Men and the Male Citizen.  Olympe was eventually arrested after creating and posting a poster called The Three Urns or, Salvation of the Father Land by an Aerial Traveller.  This poster upset the radical Jacobins who did not like that her poster asked its audience to pick one of three types of government.  Olympe was arrested in 1793 and while imprisoned and on trial, she did not have the right to an attorney.  Olympe defending herself against a jury of men who were all against her cause and the fact that she was a meddling women, was sentenced to die by the guillotine.  Olympe had passionately joined in the revolutionary spirit, perhaps hoping that a regime change would be an appropriate time for women, and other people without the same rights as men, to join together and get the rights that they deserve.  She was courageous and was not afraid to write and publish anything that might get her killed.  She died for supporting and believing in her own words.

Click these links to learn more about Olympe de Gouges!

Olympe de Gouges Wikipedia

Olympe's Declaration

Women Philosophers - Olympe de Gouges

17th and 18th Century Women - The Salon

The salon was extremely important in France through the 17th and 18th centuries.  The salons were the gathering places for women intellectuals to discuss various topics.  The women of the salons regulated their salons by choosing who was invited and deciding what the topic of each meeting would be.  Salons were a source of an informal education and a place for women to exchange ideas through lively debates.

There were many famous salons, like the Hôtel de Rambouillet, in 17th century France that were run by mostly aristocratic or  high-born ladies.  Later in the 18th century, there is a shift from aristocrat-run salons to salons regulated by those of the wealthy middle class.  Madame Geoffrin was one of these 18th century salon hostesses.  Geoffrin was an important female contributor to the French Enlightenment movement.  Madame Geoffrin hosted important foreigners and other distinguished guests.  It was a great honor to be invited to her salon.

There is a great deal of information on the salons and the women who participated in the salons.  Here are some links to more info!

Salons Wikipedia

Age of Enlightenment Wikipedia

Women of the French Salons - Project Gutenberg

Madame Geoffrin

More on Madame Geoffrin

17th Century Women - Women of the Fronde

     The Fronde was a two part civil war in France.  The first part was the Fronde Parlementaire (1648-1649) and the second part was the Fronde des nobles (1650-1653).  The Fronde led to the loss of aristocratic and legislative power and the birth of an absolute monarchy in France.

La Grande Mademoiselle

     Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, the Grande Mademoiselle and "granddaughter of France, was the cousin of Louis XIV and a very, rich heiress.  Interestingly, Mademoiselle never married, though later in her life she had tried to marry Antoine Nompar de Caumont, duc de Lauzun.  Mademoiselle was in her twenties when the Fronde conflicts began.  She sided with her father, the Duke of Orléans, supporting those against an absolute monarchy.  Her involvement in the Fronde got her in some trouble with the king, who sent her away from court and into exile at her estate, Saint-Fargeau.  Mademoiselle was called back to court in 1657.  She began writing her memoirs which contained her thoughts on the happenings at court.  She often frequented the theater and salons with  her half sister, Marguerite Louise d'Orléans.  She was a very powerful female at court and she declined many proposals for her hand in marriage.  This upset her cousin, the king, who promptly sent her away for a second "exile" at her estate.  When she returned to court, she eventually fell in love with Antoine Nompar de Caumont, but Louis did not allow them to marry.  The Grande Mademoiselle died in 1693 and was buried in the Royal Basilica of St. Denis.

The Rebellious Cousin of Louis XIV

La Grande Mademoiselle wikipedia

17th Century Women - The Précieuses

     The Précieuses was a movement, a group of women, and a literary style that appeared briefly during the 17th century.  It featured platonic romance and feminine elegance, such as the refinement of language.  The women exploring these ideas were experimenting with their intellectual identity and pushing for more personal freedoms.  The audience of this movement and the works of literature it produced was women of high social status.  Interestingly, the women involved in précieusus did not indicate to others that they were involved with the movement.  Participants were concerned with maintaining their social standing since those who openly identified with précieuses ideology were often ostracized from the community.  Men opposed the précieuses movement, disliking that it encouraged women to challenge how women were supposed to behave in society and within the confines of marriage.
     Besides facing the challenge of male opposition, the précieuses women were limited by other conditions.  Even if they were married to a wealthy man, that did not mean that they would have the funds to bring the ideas of précieuses out of the salon.  They also had a limited freedom of speech, not only because of social status, but also because they were women.  Apparently at this time in history, women were bound by law not to speak their mind because it was "inappropriate" for women to have an opinion.  Within the salon, these women could express their ideas through parlor games.  The most notable game they played involved recreating fairy tales, like Beauty and the Beast, by infusing précieuses and feminist ideas.  In these tales, the characters were of the aristocratic class and the men never mistreated their ladies.  This brings back the idea of platonic love.  These women wanted  to have relationships with men, perhaps their husband or a male acquaintance, that was intellectual and in which they could be themselves.  They wanted love that was not purely physical, for pleasing their husbands and producing heirs.

Catherine de Vivonne

     This movement would not have been organized at all without this woman.  Catherine de Vivonne supplied the précieuses with a place to meet and play their parlor games.  She and her husband, the Marquis de Rambouillet, owned the Hôtel de Rambouillet.  In this place was the famous chambre bleue, the blue salon where she greated her guests.

Madame de La Fayette

     Madame de La Fayette was a French novelist, she is most famous for her historical novel La princesse de Clèves.  La Fayette's novel was a romance and the heroine was a young woman who marries one man, but falls in love with another after her marriage.  The novel shows précieuses traits because La Fayette put lots of emphasis on what was going on inside the character's head.  She though about what a woman in the princess's situation would think about.

Madeleine de Scudéry

     Mademoiselle de Scudéry was another important French writer who frequented the salon of Hôtel Rambouillet.  She never married, living with her brother in Paris after the death of her uncle, who was her guardian.  Under her uncle's guardianship, Madeleine became surprisingly well-educated, studying writing, dancing, drawing, agriculture, medicine, and even some classical history.  As a female writer living in Paris, she soon became a major figure in the salon and eventually would open her own salon for discussing précieuses literature and ideas.  She published some her writings in her brother's name and others under a pen name.  One of her works Les Femmes Illustres, targeted women as its audience and defended education and intelligent conversation.  It was a social challenge that she hoped women would embrace.

More information about the Précieuses click these links!

Précieuses

Précieuses wikipedia

Madeleine de Scudéry

Women of the Hundred Year's War - St. Joan of Arc

      Over the past few weeks my class has been discussing tons of material on Joan of Arc.  Joan was a source of controversy during her own times, and in present times the many sides of her story are still played with through media such as movies.

     There is much to be said about Joan of Arc, so I will try to be brief!  First of all, it is mind-blowingly amazing that a sixteen year-old peasant girl could somehow get command of an entire army in a matter of months.  Joan of Arc's arrival on the front lines of the Hundred Year's war was a pivotal moment.  She was the turning point that would eventually lead to the English leaving France and sailing back to their island.  From a young age, probably around twelve, Joan began to hear voices or see visions of saints.  When she was a girl, these voices mostly encouraged her to go to Mass frequently, to pray and go to confession often as well.  Later on in her teen years, this pious young lady received a call from God to bring the true French king to his throne and end the English occupation of France.  So Joan got an audience with the Dauphin Charles.  At this point, a rumor/legend had been spread that a maid from the region of Lorraine would be the savior of France.  This becomes important for Joan's acceptance by the king and the people, it makes it very convincing that this mission was her destiny.  Joan was from the Lorraine region, and after being analyzed to make sure she wasn't crazy and of course to check that she was a virgin, Charles let her join his army.

     Joan's first mission was to sneak provisions into the town of Orléans, which had been under siege by the English for almost six months.  The town was surrounded on all sides, so the only way in was to sail up the river under cover of darkness.  So as legend has it, Joan and her troops got on some boats sent by Orléans for the provisions and a miraculous wind blew them silently through the night and into Orléans.  Over the course of about eight days, after entering Orléans,  Joan helped lift the siege.  This gained her a great deal of support from other military leaders and of course from the soldiers.

      After this victory, Joan became co-commander of the army.  She insisted on bringing the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation.  After King Charles VI's coronation, Joan continued the war effort.  She was not finished until the English were gone!  Unfortunately, Joan was captured by some Burgundians, other enemies of the French during the war, who sold her to the English.  Joan tried to escape her captors a few times.  Most notable is her escape attempt in which she threw herself out of a tower window, almost walking away with a few scrapes and bruises before being recaptured.  The English put her on trial (her trial is one of the most well documented parts of her life) by a Church court.  She was charged with many crimes, but the big one was heresy.  They did not believe in her mission from God, they just wanted to prove that she was an insane French girl who thought she heard the voices of the saints.  In the end, Joan was burned at the stake mostly for defending that she did have visions of saints, but also for wearing pants (two reasons: 1) didn't want to get raped by her captors, 2) God wanted her to wear pants).

     Years after her death, the Church re-evaluated her case and proclaimed her a martyr.  In 1920 she was canonized a saint.  She has continued to be a symbol of nationalism for the French and she was also an  important symbol in propaganda during the World War I and II era.  Today we have access to many interpretations of her life and mission.  She has inspired many films and there is also a television show based on her visions/voices.

In movies and television

Visit these links for more on Joan of Arc and also check out these videos!

Joan of Arc Wikipedia

7 things you didn't know about Joan of Arc

The Song of Joan of Arc

The Trial of Joan of Arc

Woman Warrior - Joan of Arc

Badass of the Week - Joan of Arc

Women of the Hundred Year's War - Jeanne Hachette

Statue of Jeanne in Beauvais

Not much is known about Jeanne Laisné or Jeanne Fourquet (she was also nicknamed Jeanne Hachette which means Jean the Hachet), what we do know is that she took up arms against her enemies to help save the town of Beauvais.  Jeanne was born a few years after the Hundred Year's war ended, but I think she should be included with female heroes from this era because she broke with the convention that women could not be soldiers or have much influence in political/ military affairs.  In the summer of 1472, Jeanne helped prevent the capture of Beauvais by the Burgundians when she attacked a knight, who had planted the Burgundian flag on the walls of Beauvais, with a hatchet.  After killing/ throwing the knight into the moat, she cut down the enemy's flag and raised the morale of Beauvais militia, leading them to victory.

For more information about Jeanne visit these links!

Jeanne Hachette wikipedia

Badass of the Week - Jeanne Hachette

Woman Warrior - Jeanne Hachette

Women of the Hundred Year's War - Christine de Pisan

During the Hundred Year's war, a few significant female heroes took on roles that many women before them had not dared to take on.  Examples of such women that I will be looking at are Joan of Arc, Christine de Pisan, and the less known Jeanne Hachette.  For now I want to take a look at Christine and Jeanne since this week I am presenting in class on Joan of Arc (I will make a post for her a little later).

Christine de Pisan

Christine was born in 1365, not in France, but in the Italian city of Venice.  Her father had knowledge in many fields including astrology and medicine.  As a young girl, Christine moved to France with her family when her father became the royal physician to Charles V of France.  An intelligent and motivated young women, Christine took advantage of all the knowledge she had access to within the French court.  Christine married Etienne du Castel, a royal secretary, when she was 23.  In 1390, Christine's husband suddenly died, leaving 24 year old Christine alone to support her two children.  Complications in collecting her late husband's salary/ estate, led to Christine's writing career.

Christine's writing got attention from the nobles of the French court.  They were some of her first patrons, apparently fascinated by a widowed woman who wrote love ballads and poems.  Christine had to support her family and writing was surprisingly lucrative for her.  She was a novelty in her time, women were wives and mothers, most were far to uneducated to even dream of having a career like Christine.  In 1429, Christine wrote The Poem of Joan of Arc, a tribute to a woman willing to sacrifice herself for her country and to take on the role of a man, defying the rules of society.  This was Christine's last poem, written when she was about 65 years old.  Throughout her life Christine encouraged women to break out of the confines of a society created by men because of this she is thought of as France's first feminist.  

The Song of Joan of Arc
By Christine de Pisan
Stanza 11

A miracle it was and who
would ever believe if not perfect
and were less well known and not 
crystal-clear in every respect,
It is a fact worth remembering,
that God should have laid
(and this is the truth!) His
great blessing and grace upon 
France through a young maid.

For more sources about Christine de Pisan, try these links!

The Song of Joan of Arc

Christine de Pisan Wikipedia

Works by Christine (Project Gutenburg)

Women of the High Middle Ages - Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was certainly one of the most interesting and powerful women of her time.  She was the wife of two kings and the mother of King Richard the Lionheart and King John of England.  Born in 1122 or 1124, Eleanor grew up in her father's court of Aquitaine, the birth place of the troubadour tradition, which became important in her later life.  In her early teens, Eleanor became the Duchess of Aquitaine, ruling over her late father's lands in her own right.  An eligible young lady and heiress of basically what could be called a small kingdom, Eleanor was soon married to the future King of the Franks, Louis VII, granting her husband a larger kingdom.  Eleanor and Louis had two daughters during their marriage and Eleanor even insisted on going with her husband on the Second Crusade.  During this time their relationship began to fall apart, and Eleanor actually sought an annulment of her marriage to Louis based on the grounds that they had a common ancestor (of the fourth degree).  This was a surprising thing for a woman of her time to do.  It was common for kings and other men of the nobility to seek such separations, never a woman.  Eleanor's request was denied, but later Louis agreed to an annulment after the birth of their second daughter and fifteen years of marriage.

Almost immediately after separating with Louis, Eleanor became engaged to Henry II of England, whom she had met before breaking things off with Louis.  They were married and once again Eleanor was a queen and her inherited lands became an important part of Henry's kingdom.  Eleanor and Henry did not have the best marriage, but Eleanor had eight children with him, five sons and three daughters.  Eleanor and Henry became estranged and Eleanor moved back to her home, the Palace of Poitiers in Aquitaine.  From 1168 to 1173, Eleanor is said to have ruled over her "Court of Love" along with her daughter.  Here, legend has it, she encouraged and inspired the troubadours and essentially invented courtly love and the ideals of chivalry.

From 1173 to 1189, Eleanor was imprisoned in England by Henry II because she had supported her sons in their civil war against their father.  After Henry II's death, Eleanor was set free by her son, the new King Richard I.  Eleanor ruled England as a queen regent in the name of her son Richard, who was fighting in the Third Crusade.  Something interesting about her reign as queen is that no one seemed to oppose a her right to the throne, whereas, in the past women like Henry II's mother, Matilda, were seen as huge threats to the kingdom because rulers were supposed to be men and she was the true heir and a woman.  After Richard's death, Eleanor's youngest son became the king.  Eleanor died in 1204 while at her home at Poitiers, where she had retreated to in her last days.  She was buried in Fontevraud Abbey beside Henry II.

Legends:  Eleanor is associated with the legends of Robin Hood. In some stories she was a patron of Robin Hood, who supposedly aided her efforts to raise ransom money for King Richard during the Third Crusade.

Another rumor is that Eleanor had Henry II's mistress, Rosamund, poisoned.

Here are some sources about Eleanor of Aquitaine (and a few videos that I found interesting!):

Eleanor of Aquitaine Wikipedia

Search for a Real Robin Hood

Women of the High Middle Ages - Eloise

Eloise

This week we will be discussing Eleanor of Aquitaine as well as another important woman of the Middle Ages, Heloise d'Argenteuil (Eloise)

Eloise was a French scholar and nun born sometime between 1090 and 1100 AD.  She is most famous for her love affair with her teacher the theologian Abelard.  Their legendary affair began when Abelard sought a place in the home of Fulbert, Eloise's uncle.  The couple falls in love, but Eloise's uncle does not approve so they begin to meet in secret.  Eloise eventually became pregnant, left Paris, and traveled to live with Abelard's family during her pregnancy.  After giving birth to her son, Astrolabe, Eloise and Abelard got married in secret.  Fulbert, seeking to damage Abelard's reputation, began to spread the rumor of their affair and marriage.  Eloise denied her marriage to Abelard and was sent by Abelard to a convent for protection from her uncle.  Abelard is eventually castrated by Fulbert and his men for sending Eloise to become a nun which led to his decision to become monk.

Eloise eventually became abbess of her religious community and she and Abelard wrote letters to each other over many years.  Eloise and Abelard are together again in death.  Their remains are buried side-by-side in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  The story of Eloise and Abelard continues to inspire the many lovers who bring love letters to the grave in tribute to the couple.  Eloise is heroic for being an independent young woman who was aware of what she wanted and who she wanted to love, even if others outside of the relationship didn't think it was appropriate she still followed her heart.

Here are some interesting sources about Eloise and Abelard:

The Story of Abelard and Heloise

The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Heloise Wikipedia