Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter-Writing, 1750–2000

Literature & Fiction

Cross, Máire

History & Criticism

Routledge

Letters have long been an outlet for political expression, whether they articulate the personal politics of the daily routine or the political views of individuals who witness or participate in dramatic events. In addition, letters can be unusually revealing records of the relations between men and women. Though letters have frequently been studied as a privileged space for literary, social, and cultural expression, the three-dimensional relationship of politics, gender, and letters has not been the focus of an entire volume. The nineteen essays in this collection examine how the gendered nature of political literacy is revealed over a 250-year period through letter writing, whether the writer is famous or unknown, the wife of a prominent politician or activist, a political prisoner or political militant. Ranging wide in terms of subject matter and geography, the contributors examine correspondence that ponders familial concerns, as well as letters providing political commentary on the effects of war or revolution on everyday life. Among the impressive group of international scholars are Jim Allen, Clare Brant, Edith Gelles, Jane Rendall, and SiÃ¢n Reynolds.

Literary

<p>Flora Tristan was a most remarkable woman. Born at the begining of the 19th century, her short life was packed with adventure and achievement. An illegitimate child, she had a disastrous marriage to a husband who tried to kill her. In vain pursuit of her rightful inheritance, she sailed unchaperoned across the perilous Atlantic to Peru. Returning to France, she became a socialist, and feminist, and commited herself to a life of political radicalism. She recognized that until the economic conditions of the poor were alleviated there was little prospect of female emancipation. Her strategy was to establish a union of workers throughout France to press for socialist measures. However, linking the feminist cause to socialism proved to be fraught with difficulty. Flora Tristan found that working class organizations were indifferent, and even hostile, to the idea of female equality. In short, Flora Tristan exemplifies in her life and work, both the history of feminism, in its phases of optimism, realism and dissillusion, and the tensions between feminism and socialism.</p>

The Feminism of Flora Tristan

Gray, Tim

Berg Publishers

<p>A compilation of writings by five key figures in French political thought and women's rights. Selections are excerpted from journals, letters, and diaries as well as published material, and are introduced by biographical and historical overviews linking the writers to contemporary feminist and socialist debates. For students and scholars of women's studies and modern French history. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.</p>

Early French Feminisms, 1830–1940: A Passion for Liberty

Politics & Social Sciences

Gordon, Felicia

Social Sciences

Edward Elgar Publishing

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