Salons, History, and the Creation of Seventeenth-Century France
Subtitle: Mastering Memory
Edition: First edition.
Series: Women and Gender in the Early Modern World
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 358
ISBN-13: 9781315243825
Subjects: Women intellectuals; History; Intellectual life; Social life and customs; Manners and customs
Description: "The first half of the book is a detailed study of how the salons influenced the development of literature. Beasley argues that many women were not only writers, they also served as critics for the literary sphere as a whole. In the second half of the book Beasley examines how historians and literary critics subsequently portrayed the seventeenth century literary realm, which became identified with the great reign of Louis XIV and designated the official canon of French literature. Beasley argues that in a rewriting of this past, the salons were reconfigured in order to advance an alternative view of this premier moment of French culture and of the literary masterpieces that developed out of it. Through her analysis of how the seventeenth century salon has been defined and transmitted to posterity, Beasley illuminates facets of France's collective memory, and the powers that constituted it in the past and that are still working to define it today."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Chapter Introduction; title: chapter 1 The Voices of Shadows: The Salons and Literary Taste; title: chapter 2 Defining a Literary Culture: The Ruelles and Literary Innovation; title: chapter 3 From Critics to Hostesses: Creating Classical France; title: chapter 4 Disseminating a National Past: Teaching Le Grand Siècle.