Beyond French Feminisms Debates on Women, Politics, and Culture in France, 1981-2001

by Célestin, Roger; DalMolin, Eliane; de Courtivron, Isabelle

• ISBN13: 9780312240400
• ISBN10: 0312240406
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-18
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

What's new in French feminism at the beginning of the 21st century? How did France, within a decade, change from one of the most backward European societies in terms of women's representation in the political sphere, into one of the most progressive in this area? What are French and Francophone women up to in the arts and literature? The essays in this volume, written by the most prominent personalities in the field, examine some of the new issues that have arisen in French society in the past twenty years. In general, these essays reflect the shift from the literary and psychoanalytic approaches that characterized French feminism twenty years ago, to the more social and political questions of today. Some of the topics include the "parity" and "PACS" debates, the France-USA exchanges, the issue of "multiculturalism," the new historical approaches, and the most recent trends in literature and film by women, among others.

Author Biography

Roger CTlestin is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Connecticut and Co-editor of Sites: The Journal of 20-th century /Contemporary French Studies. Eliane DalMolin is Associate Professor of French and Co-Chair, French Studies, University of Connecticut. She is also Co-Editor of Sites: The Journal of 20th-Century/Contemporary French Studies. Isabelle de Courtivron is Professor of French Studies and Head of the Foreign Languages and Literatures department at MIT.

Table of Contents

Permissions	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
Roger Celestin
Eliane DalMolin
Isabelle de Courtivron
I. POLITICS AND SOCIETY
The Turning Point of Feminism: Against the Effacement of Women	17	(6)
Sylviane Agacinski
Symbolic Violence	23	(4)
Pierre Bourdieu
The Politics of PaCS in a Transatlantic Mirror: Same-Sex Unions and Sexual Difference in France Today	27	(12)
Eric Fassin
Women's History after the Law on Parity	39	(12)
Christine Faure
Exclusive Democracy: A French Paradigm	51	(10)
Genevieve Fraisse
The Headscarf and the Republic	61	(8)
Francoise Gaspard
Farhad Khosrokhavar
The Feminization of Professional Names: An Outrage against Masculinity	69	(8)
Benoite Groult
The Politics of Reproduction	77	(10)
Jeanine Mossuz-Lavau
Sexualities on Parade	87	(6)
Veronique Nahoum-Grappe
Chiennes de garde of the World, Unite! The Bitch Manifesto, March 8, 1999	93	(4)
New Gendered Mosaics: Their Mothers, the Gauls	97	(16)
Mireille Rosello
Parite in Politics: From a Radical Idea to Consensual Reform	113	(16)
Mariette Sineau
II. ARTS AND LITERATURE
Francophone Women Writers in France in the Nineties	129	(14)
Odile Cazenave
Body as Subject: Four Contemporary Women Artists	143	(12)
Whitney Chadwick
Unmasked!	155	(6)
Helene Cixous
The Nieces of Marguerite: Novels by Women at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century	161	(16)
Catherine Cusset
The Doorway of the World: Women in Contemporary French-Language Poetry	177	(24)
Marie Etienne
Profile of a Filmmaker: Catherine Breillat	201	(12)
Anne Gillain
French Women Making Films in the 1990s	213	(12)
Genevieve Sellier
III. FRANCE---USA
Debate. Women: A French Singularity?	225	(14)
``The French Exception''
Elisabeth Badinter
``Vive la difference!''
Joan Wallach Scott
``Counting the Days''
Mona Ozouf
Lacan and American Feminism: Who Is the Analyst?	239	(8)
Judith Feher-Gurewich
The Symptom of ``American-Style Feminism''	247	(14)
Jean-Philippe Mathy
Made in America: ``French Feminism'' in Academia	261	(24)
Claire Goldberg Moses
About the Contributors	285	(4)
Bibliography	289