This course will retrace and seek to understand the gradual shift in France from feminist theory to gender studies. Unlike in the American and British Academe, where the academic merit of
these subjects was established over a half-century ago, in France, it was only at the beginning of the
21st century that gender and women’s studies began to be recognized as an essential element of our worldview. Ironically, Anglo-Saxon scholars have nonetheless drawn heavily from the French feminist canon: we need look no further than Judith Butler, who based her own analyses on works of French feminism (Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva) as well as on French theory (Foucault, Derrida). The course will examine this paradox, and in particular attempt to show how Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) gave rise in the 70’s to two opposing branches of French feminism, of which one, embodied by the works of Monique Wittig, would bring about the shift from a feminist reclamation to a broader theory of gender, or, as was the case with Marie-Hélène Bourcier, a veritable «queer theory». Monique Wittig’s movement was both political and artistic, as the revolution that it heralded would be expressed in the literary domain, notably Les Guérillères in 1969. The question of the relationship between the gender identity of an artist and the gendered nature of an artistic work will play a significant role in our reflection. This will also allow us to consider another shift: the shift from the reclamation of a feminine literature (Antoinette Fouque and women’s publishing houses) to that of a gay and lesbian literature (queer re-readings by Violette Leduc and Jean Genet). The course will therefore center on five themes:
I. From feminism to gender studies; II. The blurring of literary genders; III. The politics and poetics of gender; IV. Queer readings; V. Gender confusion.
Prerequisites:
The course is open to all students interested in gender studies and a trans- disciplinary approach to knowledge incorporating sociology, philosophy, literature and art.
Learning outcomes:
After this course, students will be able to:
• Conceptualize «études de genre» in France in relationship to gender studies in the United States
• Explain the French cultural context of Feminist and gender theories
• Analyze the reconsideration and reclaiming of sexual (and racial, etc.) identities
• Debate current events related to gender (equal pay, gay parenting…)
They will also have discovered many texts, works and authors belonging to the French feminist and gender canons.
Method of presentation:
Courses will be based on in-class readings of excerpts from literary works, collaborative analysis and reflection, and class discussion. A diverse range of handouts, slideshows, and audio and video materials will be available to students during class.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: French
Required work and form of assessment:
- Attendance and class participation: 10%
- 2 in-class essays (1.5 hrs each): 50%
- 1 10-page term paper: 25%
- 1 2-page reading journal/report: 15%
In–class essays will pertain to course themes and analyses of texts studied in class.
The term paper will consist of a personal reflection on a topic chosen by the student from the following:
- The construction of gender in Tomboy (2011), a film by Céline Sciamma.
- Feminism and new burlesque. Possible examples of works include Colette, L’Envers du Music-hall
(1913) and Mathieu Amalric, Tournée (film) (2010).
- The age of man or the masculine gender. Possible examples of works include Michel Leiris, L’Age d’homme, Gallimard, 1939 and/or Pascal Quignard, La Leçon de musique, Hachette, 1987.
- Artistic creation and procreation. Possible examples of work includes Nancy Huston, Journal de la
Création, Babel, 1990.
- Transvestite women in the plays of Marivaux or in Christine Bard, Une histoire du pantalon (Seuil,
2010).
- The figure of the black woman in La Matrice de la race by Elsa Dorlin and/or Vénus noire by
Abdellatif Kechiche (film) (2010).
- Masculine homosexuality in La Maladie de la mort by Marguerite Duras (1982).
The reading journal/report will contain the student’s individual interpretation of a text or work pertaining to one of the course themes. Possible examples include:
- An exhibition, a film or a show of the student’s choice relating to women or gender
- A trip to the women’s library, Marguerite Durand (Paris, 13e)
- A trip to l’Espace des femmes, 35 rue Jacob (Paris, 6e)
- A reading (review, academic work, novel…) relating to women or gender
content:
THEME I – FROM FEMINISM TO GENDER STUDIES
Week 1: Introduction. Sex, Gender, Sexuality
De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième sexe. Paris : Gallimard, 1949. T.1, p. 11-12. T.2, p. 13-14. Kofman, Sarah. Le Respect des femmes. Paris: des femmes, 1982. P. 13-20.
Week 2: « Essentialist » and « materialist » feminisms
Wittig, Monique. « On ne naît pas femme » in La Pensée straight. Paris : Amsterdam, 2001. P. 43-52. Irigaray, Luce. « Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un » in Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un. Paris : Minuit, 1977. P.
23-32.
THEME II – BLURRING OF LITERARY GENDERS
Week 3: Hypothesizing a feminine literature
Cixous, Hélène. « Le rire de la Méduse » in Le Rire de la Méduse et autres ironies. Paris : Galilée, 2010. P. 37-68.
Barthes, Roland. « La Mort de l’auteur » in Le Bruissement de la langue Essais critiques IV. Paris : Seuil
Essais, 1984. P. 63.
Week 4: Readings of sexual difference
Proust, Marcel. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Paris : Gallimard Folio Classique, 1988. P. 6-12.
Derrida, Jacques. « Fourmis » in Lectures de la différence sexuelle. Ed. Mara Negron. Paris : Éditions des femmes, 1994. P. 69-102.
THEME III – POLITICS AND POETICS OF GENDER
Week 5: Broaching the Feminine
Levinas, Emmanuel. « Phénoménologie de l’eros » in Totalité et infini. Paris : Nijhoff/Livre de poche,
1971. P. 284-299.
Derrida, Jacques. « Prégnances. Sur quatre lavis de Colette Deblé ». Revue Littérature n°142, juin 2006. P. 8, 10, 12.
Week 6: The revolution of the point of view
Wittig, Monique. Les Guérillères. Paris : Minuit, 1969. Lectures d’extraits.
Wittig, Monique. « La marque du genre » in La Pensée Straight, op.cit., p. 103-111.
Week 7: Exam and exam correction
THEME IV – QUEER READINGS
Week 8: Queering the French language
Genet, Jean. Notre-dame-des-fleurs (1944). Paris : Gallimard, 1951. P. 38-39 ; 142-143. Genet, Jean. Journal du voleur. Paris : Gallimard, 1949. P. 72-75.
Week 9: Without shame, writing a woman’s love for another woman
Leduc, Violette. L’Affamée. Paris : Gallimard, 1948. P. 9-10.
Leduc, Violette. Thérèse et Isabelle. Paris : Gallimard, 1966. P. 10-13; 26-29.
THEME IV – GENDER CONFUSION
Week 10: The grammar of intersexuality
Barbin, Herculine. Mes souvenirs. Paris : Gallimard, 1978.
Foucault, Michel. « Le vrai sexe » in Dits et écrits 4. Paris : 1980. P. 117-123. Ferret, René. Le mystère Alexina. 1984 (film). Excerpts will be shown in class.
Week 11: Self portrait and gender transgressions
A look at contemporary feminist creation through the photographs of Claude Cahun and Pierre Molinier, and the works of Orlan, to be shown in class.
Week 12: Exposing the subject. In the margins of writing.
Guibert, Hervé. A l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie. Paris : Gallimard, 1990. Excerpts. Guibert, Hervé. Photographies. Paris : Gallimard, 1993.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. L’Intrus. Paris : Galilée, 2000. Excerpts.
Denis, Claire. L’Intrus. 2005 (film). Excerpts will be shown in class.
Recommended readings:
Bourcier, Marie-Hélène. Queer zone. Politique des identités sexuelles et des savoirs. Paris : Éditions Amsterdam, 2001/2006.
Butler, Judith. Trouble dans le genre. Le féminisme et la subversion de l’identité (1990). Tr. Cynthia Kraus. Paris : La Découverte Poche, 2005.
Cixous, Hélène. Le Rire de la Méduse et autres ironies. Paris : Galilée, 2010.
De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième sexe. Paris : Gallimard, 1949.
Delphy, Christine. L’Ennemi principal vol.2 : Penser le genre. Paris : Syllepses, 2001.
Derrida, Jacques. « Fourmis » in Lectures de la différence sexuelle. Ed. Mara Negron. Paris : Éditions des femmes, 1994. P. 69-102.
Derrida, Jacques. Calle-Gruber, Mireille. « Scènes des différences. Où la philosophie et la poétique, indissociables, font événement d’écriture » in La Différence sexuelle en tous genres, revue Littérature n°142, juin 2006.
Dorlin, Elsa. Sexe, genre et sexualités. Introduction à la théorie féministe. Paris : PUF, 2008.
Foucault, Michel. Histoire de la sexualité 1. La Volonté de savoir. Paris : Gallimard, 1976.
Foucault, Michel. « Le vrai sexe » in Dits et écrits 4. Paris : Gallimard, 1980, p. 117-123.
Fouque, Antoinette. Il y a deux sexes. Essais de féminologie (1995). Paris : Gallimard, 2004.
Irigaray, Luce. Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un. Paris : Minuit, 1977.
Kofman, Sarah. Aberrations. Le devenir-femme d’Auguste Comte. Paris : Aubier Flammarion, 1978.
Lacan, Jacques. Encore. Paris : Seuil, 1975.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Le Temps et l’autre (1946-1947). Paris : PUF, 2004.
Malabou, Catherine. Changer de différence. Le féminin et la question philosophique. Paris : Galilée, 2009.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. L’il y a du rapport sexuel. Paris : Galilée, 2001.
Wittig, Monique. La Pensée Straight. Paris : Amsterdam, 2007.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Anaïs Frantz de Spot has a doctorate in French literature and civilization. She is a member of the Centre de Recherches en Études Féminines et Genres/Littératures Francophones of the University of Paris III La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris. From 2008 to 2010 she coordinated and oversaw the international Master’s
« Tempus Drive » on gender and co-organized a symposium on “Politics and Poetics of Gender in
Migration: Women between the Banks of the Mediterranean,” for which she and Mireille Calle-Gruber published the conference papers with the University Press of Tanger (2011). Her work focuses in particular on the idea of shame. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, notably on the writers Marguerite Duras, Violette Leduc and Pascal Quignard.
This course will retrace and seek to understand the gradual shift in France from feminist theory to gender studies. Unlike in the American and British Academe, where the academic merit of
these subjects was established over a half-century ago, in France, it was only at the beginning of the
21st century that gender and women’s studies began to be recognized as an essential element of our worldview. Ironically, Anglo-Saxon scholars have nonetheless drawn heavily from the French feminist canon: we need look no further than Judith Butler, who based her own analyses on works of French feminism (Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva) as well as on French theory (Foucault, Derrida). The course will examine this paradox, and in particular attempt to show how Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) gave rise in the 70’s to two opposing branches of French feminism, of which one, embodied by the works of Monique Wittig, would bring about the shift from a feminist reclamation to a broader theory of gender, or, as was the case with Marie-Hélène Bourcier, a veritable «queer theory». Monique Wittig’s movement was both political and artistic, as the revolution that it heralded would be expressed in the literary domain, notably Les Guérillères in 1969. The question of the relationship between the gender identity of an artist and the gendered nature of an artistic work will play a significant role in our reflection. This will also allow us to consider another shift: the shift from the reclamation of a feminine literature (Antoinette Fouque and women’s publishing houses) to that of a gay and lesbian literature (queer re-readings by Violette Leduc and Jean Genet). The course will therefore center on five themes:
I. From feminism to gender studies; II. The blurring of literary genders; III. The politics and poetics of gender; IV. Queer readings; V. Gender confusion.
The course is open to all students interested in gender studies and a trans- disciplinary approach to knowledge incorporating sociology, philosophy, literature and art.
After this course, students will be able to:
• Conceptualize «études de genre» in France in relationship to gender studies in the United States
• Explain the French cultural context of Feminist and gender theories
• Analyze the reconsideration and reclaiming of sexual (and racial, etc.) identities
• Debate current events related to gender (equal pay, gay parenting…)
They will also have discovered many texts, works and authors belonging to the French feminist and gender canons.
Courses will be based on in-class readings of excerpts from literary works, collaborative analysis and reflection, and class discussion. A diverse range of handouts, slideshows, and audio and video materials will be available to students during class.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: French
- Attendance and class participation: 10%
- 2 in-class essays (1.5 hrs each): 50%
- 1 10-page term paper: 25%
- 1 2-page reading journal/report: 15%
In–class essays will pertain to course themes and analyses of texts studied in class.
The term paper will consist of a personal reflection on a topic chosen by the student from the following:
- The construction of gender in Tomboy (2011), a film by Céline Sciamma.
- Feminism and new burlesque. Possible examples of works include Colette, L’Envers du Music-hall
(1913) and Mathieu Amalric, Tournée (film) (2010).
- The age of man or the masculine gender. Possible examples of works include Michel Leiris, L’Age d’homme, Gallimard, 1939 and/or Pascal Quignard, La Leçon de musique, Hachette, 1987.
- Artistic creation and procreation. Possible examples of work includes Nancy Huston, Journal de la
Création, Babel, 1990.
- Transvestite women in the plays of Marivaux or in Christine Bard, Une histoire du pantalon (Seuil,
2010).
- The figure of the black woman in La Matrice de la race by Elsa Dorlin and/or Vénus noire by
Abdellatif Kechiche (film) (2010).
- Masculine homosexuality in La Maladie de la mort by Marguerite Duras (1982).
The reading journal/report will contain the student’s individual interpretation of a text or work pertaining to one of the course themes. Possible examples include:
- An exhibition, a film or a show of the student’s choice relating to women or gender
- A trip to the women’s library, Marguerite Durand (Paris, 13e)
- A trip to l’Espace des femmes, 35 rue Jacob (Paris, 6e)
- A reading (review, academic work, novel…) relating to women or gender
THEME I – FROM FEMINISM TO GENDER STUDIES
Week 1: Introduction. Sex, Gender, Sexuality
De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième sexe. Paris : Gallimard, 1949. T.1, p. 11-12. T.2, p. 13-14. Kofman, Sarah. Le Respect des femmes. Paris: des femmes, 1982. P. 13-20.
Week 2: « Essentialist » and « materialist » feminisms
Wittig, Monique. « On ne naît pas femme » in La Pensée straight. Paris : Amsterdam, 2001. P. 43-52. Irigaray, Luce. « Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un » in Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un. Paris : Minuit, 1977. P.
23-32.
THEME II – BLURRING OF LITERARY GENDERS
Week 3: Hypothesizing a feminine literature
Cixous, Hélène. « Le rire de la Méduse » in Le Rire de la Méduse et autres ironies. Paris : Galilée, 2010. P. 37-68.
Barthes, Roland. « La Mort de l’auteur » in Le Bruissement de la langue Essais critiques IV. Paris : Seuil
Essais, 1984. P. 63.
Week 4: Readings of sexual difference
Proust, Marcel. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Paris : Gallimard Folio Classique, 1988. P. 6-12.
Derrida, Jacques. « Fourmis » in Lectures de la différence sexuelle. Ed. Mara Negron. Paris : Éditions des femmes, 1994. P. 69-102.
THEME III – POLITICS AND POETICS OF GENDER
Week 5: Broaching the Feminine
Levinas, Emmanuel. « Phénoménologie de l’eros » in Totalité et infini. Paris : Nijhoff/Livre de poche,
1971. P. 284-299.
Derrida, Jacques. « Prégnances. Sur quatre lavis de Colette Deblé ». Revue Littérature n°142, juin 2006. P. 8, 10, 12.
Week 6: The revolution of the point of view
Wittig, Monique. Les Guérillères. Paris : Minuit, 1969. Lectures d’extraits.
Wittig, Monique. « La marque du genre » in La Pensée Straight, op.cit., p. 103-111.
Week 7: Exam and exam correction
THEME IV – QUEER READINGS
Week 8: Queering the French language
Genet, Jean. Notre-dame-des-fleurs (1944). Paris : Gallimard, 1951. P. 38-39 ; 142-143. Genet, Jean. Journal du voleur. Paris : Gallimard, 1949. P. 72-75.
Week 9: Without shame, writing a woman’s love for another woman
Leduc, Violette. L’Affamée. Paris : Gallimard, 1948. P. 9-10.
Leduc, Violette. Thérèse et Isabelle. Paris : Gallimard, 1966. P. 10-13; 26-29.
THEME IV – GENDER CONFUSION
Week 10: The grammar of intersexuality
Barbin, Herculine. Mes souvenirs. Paris : Gallimard, 1978.
Foucault, Michel. « Le vrai sexe » in Dits et écrits 4. Paris : 1980. P. 117-123. Ferret, René. Le mystère Alexina. 1984 (film). Excerpts will be shown in class.
Week 11: Self portrait and gender transgressions
A look at contemporary feminist creation through the photographs of Claude Cahun and Pierre Molinier, and the works of Orlan, to be shown in class.
Week 12: Exposing the subject. In the margins of writing.
Guibert, Hervé. A l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie. Paris : Gallimard, 1990. Excerpts. Guibert, Hervé. Photographies. Paris : Gallimard, 1993.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. L’Intrus. Paris : Galilée, 2000. Excerpts.
Denis, Claire. L’Intrus. 2005 (film). Excerpts will be shown in class.
Bourcier, Marie-Hélène. Queer zone. Politique des identités sexuelles et des savoirs. Paris : Éditions Amsterdam, 2001/2006.
Butler, Judith. Trouble dans le genre. Le féminisme et la subversion de l’identité (1990). Tr. Cynthia Kraus. Paris : La Découverte Poche, 2005.
Cixous, Hélène. Le Rire de la Méduse et autres ironies. Paris : Galilée, 2010.
De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième sexe. Paris : Gallimard, 1949.
Delphy, Christine. L’Ennemi principal vol.2 : Penser le genre. Paris : Syllepses, 2001.
Derrida, Jacques. « Fourmis » in Lectures de la différence sexuelle. Ed. Mara Negron. Paris : Éditions des femmes, 1994. P. 69-102.
Derrida, Jacques. Calle-Gruber, Mireille. « Scènes des différences. Où la philosophie et la poétique, indissociables, font événement d’écriture » in La Différence sexuelle en tous genres, revue Littérature n°142, juin 2006.
Dorlin, Elsa. Sexe, genre et sexualités. Introduction à la théorie féministe. Paris : PUF, 2008.
Foucault, Michel. Histoire de la sexualité 1. La Volonté de savoir. Paris : Gallimard, 1976.
Foucault, Michel. « Le vrai sexe » in Dits et écrits 4. Paris : Gallimard, 1980, p. 117-123.
Fouque, Antoinette. Il y a deux sexes. Essais de féminologie (1995). Paris : Gallimard, 2004.
Irigaray, Luce. Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un. Paris : Minuit, 1977.
Kofman, Sarah. Aberrations. Le devenir-femme d’Auguste Comte. Paris : Aubier Flammarion, 1978.
Lacan, Jacques. Encore. Paris : Seuil, 1975.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Le Temps et l’autre (1946-1947). Paris : PUF, 2004.
Malabou, Catherine. Changer de différence. Le féminin et la question philosophique. Paris : Galilée, 2009.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. L’il y a du rapport sexuel. Paris : Galilée, 2001.
Wittig, Monique. La Pensée Straight. Paris : Amsterdam, 2007.
Anaïs Frantz de Spot has a doctorate in French literature and civilization. She is a member of the Centre de Recherches en Études Féminines et Genres/Littératures Francophones of the University of Paris III La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris. From 2008 to 2010 she coordinated and oversaw the international Master’s
« Tempus Drive » on gender and co-organized a symposium on “Politics and Poetics of Gender in
Migration: Women between the Banks of the Mediterranean,” for which she and Mireille Calle-Gruber published the conference papers with the University Press of Tanger (2011). Her work focuses in particular on the idea of shame. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, notably on the writers Marguerite Duras, Violette Leduc and Pascal Quignard.