Title: A mother's love : crafting feminine virtue in Enlightenment France /
Authors: Walker, Lesley H., 1960-
Publisher: Bucknell University Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Motherhood France History; Love, Maternal France History; Women France Intellectual life; Women France Social conditions
Abstract: "A Mother's Love: Crafting Feminine Virtue in Enlightenment France chronicles the emergence of an idealized mother figure whose reforming zeal sought to make French society more just. Lesley H. Walker contends that this attempt during the eighteenth century to "rewrite" social relations in terms of greater social equality represents an important but overlooked strand of Enlightenment thought. During this period, popular domestic novels, the ever-raging debates about women's social roles, and highly sought-after genre paintings produced a remarkable image of motherhood. Through a focus on feminine virtue, Walker studies female writers and artists to argue that these women theorize the domestic sphere as a site of significant social and ethical productivity."--Jacket.
Contents: Rethinking domesticity in eighteenth-century France -- The diligent mother -- When girls read Rousseau or a Rake's progress -- The erotics of motherhood -- The good mother, or, Sex born to suffer -- Nostalgia and maternal loss.