Women's Stories in Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710) : Feminine Fictions in an Early French Periodical (Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World)

Steinberger, Deborah

Amsterdam University Press（2024/08発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 222 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9789463726184
• DDC分類 843.409

Full Description

What do women want to read? Jean Donneau de Visé, the founder and editor in chief of Le Mercure Galant, one of France's first newspapers, was arguably the first journalist to ask this question and to recognize and capitalize upon the influence of female readers and their social networks. By including "custom content" and performing the act of listening to women, Le Mercure Galant situates itself as an intermediary, using the nouvelle as a vehicle to amplify women's voices. These fictions, presented as true stories, depict incidents and situations that women often bore silently in real life: domestic violence, romantic betrayal, dishonor, or simply loneliness. By publishing these stories alongside its chronicle of historic events, the Mercure lends credence and prestige to depictions of the private life of anonymous individuals, exploiting the ostensibly anodyne genre of "women's fiction" to disseminate modern ideas about women's agency.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Galanterieand the Art of Listening
Chapter 1: What Women Want
Chapter 2: Befriending the Female Reader: Tales of Female Friendship in Le Mercure Galant
Chapter 3: Girls with Guns: Women Soldiers' Stories in Le Mercure Galant
Chapter 4: True Crime? Women and Violence in Le Mercure Galant
Chapter 5: Obstinate Women and Sleeping Beauties in the Kingdom of Miracles: Conversion Stories in Le Mercure Galant's Anti-Protestant Propaganda
Epilogue: Buying In or Selling Out? Reading Le Mercure Galant Today
Bibliography
Index