Women in Contemporary Culture : Roles and Identities in France and Spain

by Twomey, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9781841508504
• ISBN10: 1841508500
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Author Biography

Jean Burrell teaches French in the School of Languages at Oxford Brookes University, where she was Principal Lecturer until her recent (semi) retirement. In the second half of the 1990s she was part of a cross-disciplinary research team exploring the implementation of EU equal opportunities legislation in four member states. Her interest in women's studies also extends to literature. Mercedes Carbayo-Abengozar is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Nottingham Trent University. She was awarded the VIII Premio de Investigacion Victoria Kent at the University of Malaga and has published her doctoral thesis as Buscando un lugar entre mujeres: buceo en la Espana de Carmen Martin Gaite. She has developed her research to publish on Spanish feminism and on the interface between language and women's identity in the Franco period. Jacky Collins is Lecturer in Spanish Studies at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Her main area of research is lesbian cultures in contemporary Spain. She is contributor to Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies by Barry Jordan and Rikki Morgan-Tamosun. Sylvie Gambaudo is Lecturer in European Studies at the University of Durham, Stockton Campus. Her research focuses on the crisis of identity and the work of Julia Kristeva and she has published a series of articles exploring Kristevais psychoanalytical theories. Alison Holland is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Her Ph.D. thesis focuses on the textual strategies Simone de Beauvoir uses in her fiction and she has published a series of articles focusing on madness and writing practice. She is currently preparing a revised translation of Les Belles Images. In addition to her work on Simone de Beauvoir, her research interests include feminism in France and feminist theory. Vanessa Knights teaches contemporary Hispanic literary and cultural studies and is also active in the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She has published a monograph on the contemporary Spanish writer Rosa Montero, is co-author of A History of Spanish Writing 1939-1990s and has written on Spanish feminisms, contemporary Spanish women writers and science fiction. She is currently researching Latin American popular music. Sheila Perry is Reader in French Studies at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Her research interests include television and politics in French, political communication and women and politics. She is the editor of a number of books about France including Voices of France: Social, Political and Cultural Identity; Aspects of Contemporary France; The Media in France and Media Developments and Cultural Change. William Smith is Head of French Studies at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. He first researched into aspects of the Catholic novel in France, with special reference to Henri Queffelec. In recent years, the focus of his research has shifted from the literary to the historical, in particular the interaction between the Catholic Church and the Vichy regime and the interface between the Church and the extreme Right in France. Monica Threlfall is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Department of European Studies, Loughborough University. She is editor of Mapping the Women's Movement: Feminist Politics and Social Transformation in the North (Verso 1996) and of Consensus Politics in Spain: Insider Perspectives (Intellect 2000). She has published widely on gender and politics in Spain and is currently preparing a co-authored book with Christine Cousins and Celia Valiente for Frank Cass and Co. Lesley Twomey is Head of Spanish Studies at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. She first researched on the theme of the Immaculate Conception in fifteenth-century poetry. Her research now focuses on misogynist writing, as well as the interface between the female author and female reader in conventual writing. She has developed her research interests to include contemporary women's writing and misogynist discourse in the modern Church.

Table of Contents

Contributors	iv
List of Tables	vi
Preface and Dedication	1	(1)
Abbreviations	2	(1)
Introduction	3	(6)
Lesley K. Twomey
Women and Politics
Parity in French Politics	9	(20)
Sheila Perry
Sue Hart
Women and Political Participation	29	(18)
Monica Threlfall
Women, Religion and Politics
The Image and Role of Women Promoted by the Extreme Right and Catholic Integrists in Contemporary France	47	(92)
William B. Smith
`Licencia mas amplia para matar'?
Changes to Spain's Abortion Law and the Traditionalist Catholic Response	63	(20)
Lesley K. Twomey
Women and Work
`Still Working on it'
Recent Steps towards Employment Equality in France	83	(10)
Jean Burrell
Gendered Structures in the City
Management in Spain and Professional Identity in Etxebarria's Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas	93	(18)
Lesley K. Twomey
Women and Feminisms
Feminism in Spain
A History of Love and Hate	111	(16)
Mercedes Carbayo-Abengozar
Lesbian Identity in Contemporary Spain
`One of the Greatest Taboos Ever'	127	(12)
Jacky Collins
An Introduction to Julia Kristeva	139	(12)
Sylvie Gambaudo
Women and their Writing
The Quest for Identity in the Later Fiction of Simone de Beauvoir	151	(20)
Alison T. Holland
Discursive Configurations of Identity in El cuarto de atras and Cronica del desamor	171
Vanessa Knights