Classical Reeducation: Decanonizing the Feminine

DeJean, Joan

doi:10.2307/2930305

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Par leur dimension anthologique et citationnelle, les Dames illustres annoncent, à une échelle modeste, la Collection des meilleurs ouvrages français composés par des femmes qu'assemblera Louise Keralio entre 1786 et 1789. Envisagé de cette façon, l'ouvrage de Guillaume s'inscrit dans l'histoire de la constitution d'anthologies qui font une part au féminin pour un public principalement féminin 34 , tout en répondant de façon originale à l'intérêt suscité par l'éducation des femmes pendant les années 1660-1690 35 .…”

Section: « Ouvrages De Femmes »unclassified

« La gloire de nostre sexe » : savantes et lectrices dans Les dames illustres (1665) de Jacquette Guillaume

Beaulieu¹

2011

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Parmi les recueils de femmes illustres publiés au xviie siècle, l’ample ouvrage de Jacquette Guillaume intitulé Les dames illustres où par bonnes et fortes raisons, il se prouve, que le sexe feminin surpasse en toute sorte de genres le sexe masculin (Paris, Thomas Jolly, 1665) se singularise par la façon dont il s’attache à démontrer le savoir féminin en attribuant de longs discours érudits à des contemporaines, principalement françaises, désignées de manière allusive (« Mademoiselle **** »), avec qui l’auteure semble entretenir des liens de familiarité. Ces « portraits parlants », qui prouvent la réalité d’un savoir féminin représenté par des femmes qui ne se sont pas encore distinguées sur la scène publique, indiquent qu’être illustre n’implique donc pas une notoriété préalable, mais simplement des dispositions que le texte de Guillaume a pour fonction de rendre publiques. Par l’usage systématique de la citation directe ou indirecte, le texte donne existence à un cercle virtuel mais étendu de femmes savantes, dont Élisabeth d’Orléans, la dédicataire, serait la marraine et l’auteure, la porte-parole. Contrastant avec son attitude négative à l’égard des hommes, les efforts que déploie Guillaume pour mettre en valeur une communauté hypothétique de femmes suggèrent que les Dames illustres visent principalement un public féminin que l’on invite à suivre les exemples fournis par l’ouvrage. En tant qu’aperçu — en grande partie fictif — d’un savoir qui embrasse des disciplines comme la théologie et la géographie, généralement étrangères à l’expérience féminine, le livre de Guillaume serait tendu vers les lectrices tel un miroir qui réfléchit tout à la fois les qualités de l’auteure, de la dédicataire et des diverses savantes, pour faire la preuve irréfutable que le savoir féminin représente désormais un fait avéré.The voluminous tome entitled Les dames illustres où par bonnes et fortes raisons, il se prouve, que le sexe feminin surpasse en toute sorte de genres le sexe masculin published by Jacquette Guillaume in 1665 (Paris, Thomas Jolly) stands out among 17th-century collections devoted to famous women. Guillaume’s emphasis on women’s knowledge is truly unusual, especially the way she attributes extensive learned discourses to contemporary French women whose identity, evidently known to her, remains concealed. These “talking portraits” bespeak a feminine knowledge possessed by women yet unknown and suggest that fame is not necessarily a prerequisite for inclusion here: learning can be found among very different women, be they illustrious or anonymous. Systematically using citation strategies, the author develops a virtual coterie of scholarly women, with the dedicatee, Élisabeth d’Orléans, as matriarch and herself as spokesperson. In contrast to her antagonistic attitude towards men, Guillaume’s impetus to stage this fictitious community suggests a book intended for a female public, with the “dames illustres” as inspirational examples and mentors in such areas as theology and geography, fields seldom associated with ...

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Section: « Ouvrages De Femmes »unclassified

« La gloire de nostre sexe » : savantes et lectrices dans Les dames illustres (1665) de Jacquette Guillaume

Beaulieu¹

2011

etudfr

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“…As Joan DeJean notes, "In the closing decades of the seventeenth century, French writers begin to draw up lists of their precursors and then to edit anthologies of their representative works" in a spirit of national promotion. 11 The most popular of these miscellanies was the Recueil des plus belles pièces des poëtes françois, tant anciens que modernes, which appeared in 1692. The compiler of the Recueil des plus belles pièces notes the novelty of the work.…”

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“…Leaving the history of printing in England to England's "own Writers," Watson concentrates instead on presenting a history of the art in Scotland up to its present sad state. He notes with dismay the appointment of Andrew Anderson as "King's Printer" in 1671, with a monopoly "to continue for Forty one Years" (11). Although he admits that Anderson produced "the greatest Part of a very good Octavo Bible," Watson takes Anderson's wife to task for doing a poor job of running the business after Anderson's death.…”

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Imagining the Miscellaneous Nation: James Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems

Davis¹

2011

Eighteenth-Century Life

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On August 6th, 1706, less than a year before the passing of the Act of Union that yoked England and Scotland uneasily together into the single political entity known as Great Britain, the Edinburgh Courant ran an advertisement for the first volume of a collection of verse printed by James Watson: "This day is publish'd a choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems, both Ancient and Modern. By Several Hands." 1 The second and third volumes followed in 1709 and 1711 respectively. As the first published anthology of Scottish poetry, the Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems has long been regarded as a milestone in Scottish literary history. The editor of the Scottish Text Society's edition, Harriet Harvey Wood, notes that the Collection is "one of the most influential works published in the history of Scottish poetry" and that it is "referred to by almost every historian and critic of Scottish literature from the 18 th century onwards" (Wood, 2:ix). In the classic The Paradox of Scottish Culture, for example, David Daiches reads the Choice Collection as "an attempt to make contact with Scotland's literary past": "Watson saw himself as serving up to his countrymen what was still available of poetry written in an older tradition" 2 According to Daiches, the Choice Collection was "the most important manifestation of [Watson's] patriotism" (14). In the History of Scottish Literature, Maurice Lindsay agrees that Watson's "motives were undoubtedly patriotic," designed to "counter the increasing Edinburgh tendency to accept Anglicization." 3 Lindsay views Watson as a leading figure in the Scottish renaissance, suggesting that the Choice

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Miscellanies and the Canon: Forming Readers’ Taste and Authors’ Reputations

Watson

2021

Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print

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Classical Reeducation: Decanonizing the Feminine

Cited by 5 publications

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« La gloire de nostre sexe » : savantes et lectrices dans Les dames illustres (1665) de Jacquette Guillaume

« La gloire de nostre sexe » : savantes et lectrices dans Les dames illustres (1665) de Jacquette Guillaume

Imagining the Miscellaneous Nation: James Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems

Miscellanies and the Canon: Forming Readers’ Taste and Authors’ Reputations

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