Revising Memory: Women's Fictions and Memoirs in 17th-Century France

In the authorized historical and literary canons, women's activities as agents and writers have all traditionally been assigned to the same critical oblivion. Revising Memory resurrects a particularly dynamic moment in French history when women acted on the political stage and inscribed these often subversive actions in writing.

Faith E. Beasley provides close readings of the use and conception of history in some of the primary representatives of women's literary creativity during this period: Montpensier's Mémoires, Lafayette's La Princesse de Clves and her Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre, and Villedieu's Les Désordres de l'amour. She studies these texts in relation to women's activities during the Fronde, the influential salons, the emerging female literary tradition, and the intense debate over the definition of history. Revising Memory compels the reader to evaluate traditional views of the importance of women writers, and offers new insight into literary history.