Summer 2007 Citoyennes! Women and Politics in Modern France Description of the course content : This course focuses on the history of French feminisms and feminist politics in modern France, and women's participation in the French political arena (1789-1946). Topics dealt with include women's fights for the rights of equality and liberty, their exclusion from the modern public sphere, and their long march towards citizenship in modern France (1789-1946). We will discuss women's evolving personal and collective aspirations, and the creation of a “republican” womanhood in modern literature and culture. Spanning over 150 years, our coverage will be based on close analyses of print and visual sources, including the feminization of Liberty in urban and public monuments (for example, the statue symbolizing Liberty as a value and right of modern democracies), and feminist rewritings of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" (1789). This course will address contemporary debates pertaining to such oppositions as equality vs. difference, public vs. private in order to gain a broader perspective on national, international and transnational feminist developments, and to assess the theoretical and strategic consequences of attempts to redefine political participation and civil society from women's viewpoints.

Your Instructor: Dr. Catherine Nesci, Chair, Department of French and Italian,
& Professor of French and Women's Studies. Telephone: 893-2220
E-mail : cnesci@french-ital.ucsb.edu
Office hours : Wednesday, 6:00-7:30pm , Phelps 5206A, & by appointment.