Women, Letters, and Society: France 1750-1850

FAIN: FT-13542-77

Sara Bershtel
University of Massachusetts, Boston (Boston, MA 02125-3300)

To study the novels written by women from 1750-1850 and to research into contemporary literary criticism which describes women writers, social history of the family, and of the rising middle-class, and studies of 19th century feminism to situate and define more precisely the context in which this literature appeared and the values it refracted. The study seeks to provide a precise picture of changes in domestic life (forms and attitudes) under the impact of embourgeoisement, a comparative study of the situation of women writers in aristocratic and middle-class society.