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FlRENCH WOMEN WlRJ[TElR§~ § EXUAlLIT~ ANlD }P\mlLICATION SUSAN BROOMHALL have discussed extensively the difficulties women faced when contributing to public speech and writing in the EarIy Modern period. 1 Like those of their English counterparts, French women writers' comments in their texts reveal their awareness that constructions of femininity Iinked women's speech to the nature of their unruIy and dangerous bodies. They acknowiedged that contemporaries equated female silence outside the domestic environment with female chastity and speech with sexual Iicentiousness. 2 By publishing, then, women risked their good reputations. Female authors tacitly acknowiedged this by consistently prefacing their publications with professions of their modesty. Given this context, what is so exciting about the body of writings by French women is that, although they brought their morality into question simpIy by publishing, manyappear to have used the public forum to contribute their views to the contemporary discussions of female sexuality. Ir was no small task for women to address the issue of sexuality in their works, even when, for the majority, it was not their primary intention in writing. Most texts printed in the sixteenth century required the approval of theologians at the Sorbonne, and, at the very least,
Explorations in Renaissance Culture – Brill
Published: Dec 2, 2003
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