French Feminist Movements: History, Politics and Theory

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Gill Allwood (The Nottingham Trent University)

Ed. by David Houston Jones, University of Exeter
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Gender Politics
Literary Theory/ Critical approach
Reform movements and reformers

Dates

Date of occurrence 1970

Places

France (Location)

Cultural Identities

Feminist

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The Mouvement de Libération des femmes (MLF) [Women’s Liberation Movement], which emerged from the events of May 68, was not the first manifestation of French feminism. Maité Albistur and Daniel Armogathe’s history of French feminism devotes only one of its 25 chapters to the post-1968 period, and when Simone de Beauvoir wrote the introductory sentences to

The Second Sex

in 1949, she stated that “The subject [. . . ] is not new. Enough ink has been spilt in quarrelling over feminism, and perhaps we should say no more about it.” However, the MLF of the 1970s was a particularly vibrant expression of feminism, and, despite the excellent work of feminist historians since then, which has shown continuities with earlier (and later) versions, those involved believed that this was…

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3736 words

Citation: Allwood, Gill. "French Feminist Movements: History, Politics and Theory". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=13889, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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