Fictions of pleasure : the putain memoirs of prerevolutionary France / Alistaire Tallent.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tallent, Alistaire, author.

Series:

Early Modern Feminisms Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Autobiographical fiction, French--History and criticism.

Autobiographical fiction, French.

French fiction--18th century--History and criticism.

French fiction.

Libertines in literature.

Prostitutes in literature.

Women in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (227 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Newark, DE : University of Delaware Press, [2024]

Summary:

Out of the libertine literary tradition of eighteenth-century France emerged over a dozen memoir novels of female libertines who eagerly take up sex work as a means of escape from the patriarchal control of fathers and husbands to pursue pleasure, wealth, and personal independence outside the private, domestic sphere. In these anonymously published novels, the heroines proudly declare themselves prostitutes, or putains, and use the desire they arouse, the professional skills they develop, and the network of female friends they create to exploit, humiliate, and financially ruin wealthy and powerful men. In pursuing their desires, the putains challenge contemporary notions of womanhood and expose the injustices of ancien-régime France. Until the French Revolution spelled the end of the genre, these novels proposed not only an appealing libertine utopia in which libertine women enjoy the same benefits as their male counterparts but also entirely new ways of looking at systems of power, gender, and sexuality.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Subversive Stories: Literary Contexts and Categories

2. Fact versus Fiction: Parisian Prostitutes Meet Libertine Fantasies

3. La Belle Allemande, or The Empire of Beauty

4. Margot la ravaudeuse, or The Libertine Public Sphere

5. La Cauchoise, or Dear and Venerable Sisters

6. Histoire de Juliette, or The Rejection of Motherhood

Appendix: Contexts and Summaries of the Putain Memoir Novels

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-64453-325-1

1-64453-326-X

OCLC:

1412620176