Slavery and Feminism in the Writings of Madame de Staël
Françoise Marie Danielle Daquin
Central Queensland University
In France, the late eighteen-century was a turbulent period when the Ancien Régime was overthrown and the Revolution transformed all political and social institutions. Recent historians have argued that intellectual ideas that promoted the Enlightenment principles of knowledge, freedom and natural law played a major role for radicalising the Revolution. Through her writings, the liberal Anne-Louise Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) commented on her community and on the political regimes of her time. She also devoted her life and her work to the idea of freedom and equality particularly for women and for slaves. A moderate ‘feminist’, she advocated gender equality and social justice while highlighting the traditional female values that could be beneficial to society. De Staël’s work stands out, however, when she establishes a link between feminism and abolitionism. Like the works of other feminists at the turn of the nineteenth-century, she introduced the notion of ‘enslavement’ of married women. Like slaves, married women suffered from physical and cultural restrictions because they were denied civil rights and were treated as property. Moreover, de Staël added another notion of ‘enslavement’ when she portrayed women as victims of their passion, the strong feminine emotions that could be destructive and causing a loss of autonomy, identity and self-control, the same predicaments suffered by the slaves. This study demonstrates how feminism and abolitionism interacted and intersected in the work of Madame de Staël.
ISBN 9783969392010. LINCOM Studies in Language and Literature 38. 254pp. 2024.
