Women and Satire in 17th-Century France

FAIN: FT-51449-03

Volker Schröder
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ 08540-5228)

I am seeking support for two months of summer research in Paris focusing on the controversies surrounding satires 'against women' in late 17th century France. I intend to examine in particular Boileau's Satire X, its updating of earlier topoi and models of misogynist satire (as represented especially by Juvenal), and the responses that it provoked from male and female contemporaries. This investigation is a limited but crucial part of a broader, book-length project analyzing 'la satire des femmes' in classical France (ca. 1650-1715): i.e., both the transformations undergone by the tradition of antifeminist satire during this period, and the polemical and satirical strategies adopted by women writers within this specific historical context.