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A Belle Epoque?

Women and Feminism in French Society and Culture 1890-1914

Diana Holmes editor Carrie Tarr editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Berghahn Books

Published:1st Jan '06

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

A Belle Epoque? cover

The Third Republic, known as the ‘belle époque’, was a period of lively, articulate and surprisingly radical feminist activity in France, borne out of the contradiction between the Republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the reality of intense and systematic gender discrimination. Yet, it also was a period of intense and varied artistic production, with women disproving the critical nearconsensus that art was a masculine activity by writing, painting, performing, sculpting, and even displaying an interest in the new "seventh art" of cinema. This book explores all these facets of the period, weaving them into a complex, multi-stranded argument about the importance of this rich period of French women’s history.

“…this volume makes a welcome contribution to the history of women, gender, and feminism…The essays, while brief, suggest interesting lines for further inquiry based on their creative use of printed sources…, as well as visual materials.”  ·  H-France Review

“…many of the essays are extremely interesting and historians will find them valuable. The book’s brief conclusion emphasizes the achievements of the Belle Epoque: it altered ‘the sense of what it was to be a woman’ (307). Women did have a ‘Belle Epoque’, it seems, albeit a different one from men.”  ·  European History Quarterly

ISBN: 9781845450212

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 653g

364 pages