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This thesis documents, catalogues, and analyses relationships between female authors in France and Italy, and between French women and Italian women, from 1770 to 1840. It results from a study of the correspondence and published works of twelve women authors (Anne-Marie de Beaufort d’Hautpoul, Sophie Gay, Félicité de Genlis, Marie-Émilie de Montanclos, Constance Pipelet Salm, Germaine de Staël, Teresa Bandettini, Elisabetta Caminer, Carolina Lattanzi, Diodata Saluzzo, Fortunata Sulgher Fantastici, and Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi) over the course of a period marked by important developments in print culture, the significant involvement of women in the querelle des femmes, and the increased presence of women authors. These transformations, together with the international political upheaval caused by the French Revolution, saw attacks on female authorship pursued with increased vigour. The relationships between women authors within such a context illustrate the challenges faced in implementing a “common action” aimed at defending a female cause (that of female authors) before the advent of the feminist movement. Often described as either “rivals” or “sisters”, this study demonstrates that the nature of relationships between women in this period was in fact far more complex. On the one hand, the community of female authors examined was marked by a certain degree of cohesion. These writers had wide-ranging networks of contacts, and could rely on each other for support in times of crisis. They constructed female literary genealogies and deconstructed the discourse used by others in reference to their community, particularly that relating to the “exceptionality” of and “rivalry” between women authors. On the other hand, significant differences also ran across the membership of these networks, notably in terms of nationality, political opinions, and the position each woman occupied within literary circles. Over and above these social and political divisions, this thesis illustrates the difficulties women faced in reconciling their individual interests (the advancement of their own careers, the divisive impact of their multiple identities with the cohesion of their sex/gender) with those of the collective (legitimizing female authorship). In short, this study examines the ways in which female authors recognized the importance of their community and faced the challenges of maintaining its cohesion, at a time when not only literary activity, but also the political and cultural context in which it was framed, were undergoing great transformation.

George Sand, born Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), was one of the most prolific writers of the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Her monumental work focuses on a myriad of subjects, which are often studied from the perspective of the ideal. Among other things, Sand was interested in the notion of the poet-artist, which refers to an ideal artist. This notion, specific to this period, is distinguished from the other poet, which is a writer. While the meaning of the notion of poet-writer is well determined, that of poet-artist is subject to a vague and subjective definition. For her part, Sand considers that the poet-artist designates both an artist and a philosopher. This proposition, which is clearly stated, constitutes a central axis to all the artistic thought that she develops. This is what is explored in the present work, through three themes of George Sand's artistic thought. Each chapter is devoted to one of these themes, with an attempt to organize the artistic thought of Sand. The theme of the brotherhood of the arts will be studied first. This typically romantic theme, omnipresent in Sand's writings, perceives the different disciplines as forming a whole. Then, the hierarchy of arts will be reviewed: George Sand considers that music is the superior discipline, compared to some of her contemporaries who believe that poetry is the superior discipline. Finally, George Sand perceives a figure of genius in her writings, which comes close to the ideal artist. All these themes are studied in close relation to the usual visions found under the July Monarchy.

As Jules Ferry’s Laws (1881-1882) rendered French primary education secular, mandatory and free, most republican pedagogues designed educational lessons developed on the principle of emulation. By promoting national historical figures and heroes, they mostly sought to provide moral and patriotic models, embodying republican values, to all young boys and girls. Many examples offered in classrooms illustrated and perpetuated a vision of French society based on the sexual division of labor: masculine icons expressed public, military, and political roles while feminine icons revealed private, domestic, and maternal attributes or responsibilities. Previous academic studies on the subject explored almost exclusively the content of primary official textbooks. Meanwhile, feminine models presented in children’s literature, especially within popular collective biographies, have not yet been the object of extensive historical research. Although this literary genre was consumed in great numbers by the public in fin-de-siècle France, it has until recently always been sidelined in academic studies. However, it can be argued that collective biographies showed a significant diversity of role models to French youth. Thereby, this Master’s thesis proposes an analysis of moral, civic, and patriotic icons, which schoolgirls were meant to emulate, included in three collective feminine biographies published during the years following Ferry’s school system reforms (between 1886 and 1893). This study attempts to define the « feminine » and « French » identity shaped by the authors of these books, which recommended less conventional and alternative models, different from traditional examples usually seen in official textbooks of the period.

This dissertation examines how and why normative issues about public recognition developed in Enlightenment France. It shows that this question gained significance during the transitional period towards modernity as two important phenomena intersected. On the one hand, Enlightenment thinkers – who questioned the arbitrary foundations of authority – made glory into a process of recognition based on merit, which, in turn, could engender a harmonious and just society. On the other hand, the century saw the advent of a celebrity culture, which enabled the multiplication of famed individuals, especially emanating from the capital’s arts and literary circles. Instead of distinguishing individuals whose merit and useful accomplishments gave rise to unanimous admiration, as the economy of glory would demand, celebrity built upon things such as controversies, revelations about private lives, and the consumption of entertainment. From its inception, celebrity was perceived as a contributing factor to moral degeneracy and as a sign of cultural decay. This dissertation examines moral, aesthetic, and biographical texts that contributed to the creation, promotion, and critique of the economies of public recognition. An analysis of these texts published over a 150-year period – from the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes to the first third of the nineteenth century – sheds light on their arguments with regards to the type of order (literary, social, or political) that they hoped to consolidate or engender. These texts offer a unique view into the particularities of this defining moment shaped by the elimination of traditional hierarchies and the advent of individuals as autonomous moral subjects. This dissertation historicises modern celebrity culture through an examination of its representations and of the conflicts it generated. Although celebrity has been theorized as a media phenomenon that creates a relationship of intimacy between famed individuals and the public, this study shows that, during the period in question, it was largely conceived as a deregulation of glory’s economy of feelings. This economy was based on a theory of moral sentiments that enabled the natural recognition of true merit, and that would, in due course, solve the tension between the subjectivity of opinions and the objectivity of values. To the contrary, celebrity fuelled passions – such as envy, ambition, and greed – which prompted the creation of immediate and undeserved renown. Celebrity was inscribed in a coherent set of aesthetic and sociocultural manifestations – including, fashion, rococo, bel esprit, satire, persiflage, light reading, cabals, and spectacles – while its systematic definition took shape through a critique of elite mores.

Biographical writing in the early nineteenth century offers a window onto the malleability of gender norms for Italian women in the period. In the world of letters, women writers deemed worthy of biographical treatment after their deaths were often ascribed masculine traits. Attributes such as intelligence and courage, when they complemented a women’s “feminine essence,” served to illustrate her superiority over her female peers. In this sense, posthumous, laudatory biographies constituted signs of both intellectual and social success of women who could simultaneously abide by the constraints of femininity and move beyond them. The current essay demonstrates the conditions that made departures from gender norms possible following the French Revolution in Venice by studying the cases of Giustina Renier Michiel and Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi.

This chapter provides an overview of the situation in Montreal and Toronto in the second half of the nineteenth century, a time when municipal government was

In the age of the Grand Tour, foreigners flocked to Italy to gawk at its ruins and paintings, enjoy its salons and cafés, attend the opera, and revel in their own discovery of its past. But they also marveled at the people they saw, both male and female. In an era in which castrati were "rock stars," men served women as cicisbei, and dandified Englishmen became macaroni, Italy was perceived to be a place where men became women. The great publicity surrounding female poets, journalists, artists, anatomists, and scientists, and the visible roles for such women in salons, academies, and universities in many Italian cities also made visitors wonder whether women had become men. Such images, of course, were stereotypes, but they were nonetheless grounded in a reality that was unique to the Italian peninsula. This volume illuminates the social and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century Italy by exploring how questions of gender in music, art, literature, science, and medicine shaped perceptions of Italy in the age of the Grand Tour.