Gabrielle Petit
Subtitle: the death and life of a female spy in the First World War
By: Sophie De Schaepdrijver
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9781472590879; 9781472590862; 9781472590886; 9781472590893
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918; Secret service; Underground movements; Women spies; Biography; Spies
Description: "In central Brussels stands a statue of a young woman. Built in 1923, it is the first monument to a working-class woman in European history. Her name was Gabrielle Petit. History has forgotten Petit, an ambitious and patriotic Belgian, executed by firing squad in 1916 for her role as an intelligence agent for the British Army. After the First World War she was celebrated as an example of stern endeavour, but a hundred years later her memory has faded. In the first part of this historical biography Sophie De Schaepdrijver uses Petit's life to explore gender, class and heroism in the context of occupied Europe. Petit's experiences reveal the reality of civilian engagement under military occupation and the emergence of modern espionage. The second part of the book focuses on the legacy and cultural memory of Petit and the First World War. By analysing Petit's representation in ceremony, discourse and popular culture De Schaepdrijver expands our understanding of remembrance across the 20th century."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Disinheritance, 1893-1914; title: Engagement, August 1914-August 1915; title: War work, August 1915-February 1916; title: Confrontation, 2 February to 3 March 1916; title: "Utterly alone," 3 March 1916-11 November 1918; title: Memory agents, 1918-1919; title: National heroine, 1919-1923; title: Palimpsest, 1924-2007.