Making Waves: French Feminisms and their Legacies, 1975-2015

297 Pages·2019·3.113 MB·English

by  Margaret Atack (editor), Alison S. Fell (editor), Diana Holmes (editor), Imogen Long (editor)

Making Waves
French Feminisms and Their Legacies
1975–2015
Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures, 66
Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures
Series Editor
CHARLES FORSDICK
University of Liverpool
Editorial Board
TOM CONLEY JACQUELINE DUTTON LYNN A. HIGGINS
Harvard University University of Melbourne Dartmouth College
MIREILLE ROSELLO DEREK SCHILLING
University of Amsterdam Johns Hopkins University
This series aims to provide a forum for new research on modern and contem-
porary French and francophone cultures and writing. The books published in
Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures reflect a wide variety of critical
practices and theoretical approaches, in harmony with the intellectual, cultural
and social developments which have taken place over the past few decades. All
manifestations of contemporary French and francophone culture and expression
are considered, including literature, cinema, popular culture, theory. The volumes
in the series will participate in the wider debate on key aspects of contemporary
culture.
Recent titles in the series:
52 Jennifer Solheim, The Performance 59 Ari J. Blatt and Edward J. Welch,
of Listening in Postcolonial France in Flux: Space, Territory,
Francophone Culture and Contemporary Culture
53 Sarah Wood and Catriona MacLeod, 60 Nicholas Harrison, Our Civilizing
Locating Guyane Mission: The Lessons of
Colonial Education
54 Adrian May, From Bataille to Badiou:
Lignes, the preservation of Radical 61 Joshua Armstrong, Maps and
French Thought, 1987–2017 Territories: Global Positioning in the
Contemporary French Novel
55 Charlotte Hammond, Entangled
Otherness: Cross-gender Fabrications 62 Thomas Baldwin, Roland Barthes:
in the Francophone Caribbean The Proust Variations
56 Julia Waters, The Mauritian Novel: 63 Lucas Hollister, Beyond Return:
Fictions of Belonging Genre and Cultural Politics in
Contemporary French Fiction
57 Diana Holmes, Middlebrow Matters:
Women’s reading and the literary 64 Naïma Hachad, Revisionary Narratives:
canon in France since the Belle Époque Moroccan Women’s Auto/Biographical
and Testimonial Actst
58 John Patrick Walsh, Migration and
Refuge: An Eco-Archive of Haitian 65 Emma Wilson, The Reclining Nude:
Literature, 1982–2017 Agnès Varda, Catherine Breillat,
and Nan Goldin
MARGARET ATACK,
ALISON S. FELL, DIANA HOLMES
AND IMOGEN LONG
Making Waves
French Feminisms and Their Legacies
1975–2015
Making Waves
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2019 by
Liverpool University Press
4 Cambridge Street
Liverpool
L69 7ZU
Copyright © 2019 Liverpool University Press
The right of Margaret Atack, Alison S. Fell, Diana Holmes and
Imogen Long to be identified as the editors of this book has been asserted by
them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data
A British Library CIP record is available
ISBN 978-1-78962-042-9 cased
eISBN 978-1-78962-455-7
Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Contents
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Glossary x
Timeline xv
Introduction: Making Waves 1
Margaret Atack, Alison S. Fell, Diana Holmes,
Imogen Long
Part 1. Then: Second Wave Feminism in France
1 Before Les Femmes s’entêtent: The ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of
French Feminism? 19
Siân Reynolds
2 1975: The Year of Women 33
Diana Holmes and Imogen Long
3 From Muse to Insoumuse: Delphine Seyrig, Vidéaste 51
Grace An
Part 2. Then and Now: Feminism and Public Arenas
4 Work–Family Reconciliation Policy in France: Challenging
or Reinforcing the Gender Division of Domestic and Care
Work since the 1970s? 73
Jan Windebank
vi Making Waves
5 Feminist Publishing in France 1975–2000: A Quest
for Legitimacy 85
Fanny Mazzone
6 Parole(s) de Femmes: From Le Torchon brûle to
Les Nouvelles News 101
Maggie Allison
7 Utopian Gaiety: French Lesbian Activism and the Politics
of Pleasure (1974–2016) 115
Tamara Chaplin
8 ‘La femme du soldat inconnu’: Feminism and French
lieux de mémoire 129
Alison S. Fell
9 A Mediterranean Bazaar: The Bazar du Genre Exhibition
at the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la
Méditerranée (MuCEM) in Marseille, 2013 141
Bronwyn Winter
Part 3. Now: Reappraisals and New Agendas
10 Time to Laugh or to Cry? ‘Le Rire de la Méduse’ after
40 Years 157
Mairéad Hanrahan
11 ‘Les hommes et les femmes, c’est vraiment pas pareil’
(‘Men and women just aren’t the same’): Nancy Huston’s
Passions d’Annie Leclerc 171
Diana Holmes
12 Across the Waves: Benoîte Groult, Catel Muller and
bande dessinée 183
Imogen Long
13 Voix Blanche? Annie Ernaux, French Feminisms and the
Challenge of Intersectionality 201
Lyn Thomas
14 Third Wave Collective Manifestos: What do Feminists
Still Want? 215
Michèle A. Schaal
Contents vii
Conclusion 229
Margaret Atack, Alison S. Fell, Diana Holmes,
Imogen Long
Bibliography 235
Notes on Contributors 257
Index 261
Illustrations
Illustrations
Chapter 3
1 Maso et Miso vont en bateau 52
2, 3, 4 S.C.U.M Manifesto 58
5 Apostrophes 59
6, 7, 8 Maso et Miso vont en bateau 61
9, 10, 11, 12 Maso et Miso vont en bateau, the credits 62
13, 14, 15 The closing credits 63
16, 17 Inês 68
All images courtesy of the Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir.
Chapter 9
1 Pilar Albarracín, Sans titre (Torera), 2009. Photograph used for
the poster of the Au Bazar du Genre exhibition, MuCEM 2013
(chromogenic proof laminated on Dibond, 200 × 125 cm) 153
Courtesy of the Galerie GP & N Vallois, Paris.
Chapter 12
1 Catel. Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult (Paris: Grasset, 2013), 15 185
2 Catel, Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult, 104 196
3 Catel, Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult, 318 199
Images courtesy of Catel and Grasset.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The editors wish to record their thanks to the School of Languages,
Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds for its support for
the 2015 Women in French conference, and most particularly to Becky
Wilding in the School Office, who worked brilliantly to develop the
conference website as well as identifying the splendid poster image.
At Liverpool University Press we are grateful to Chloe Johnson and to
Anthony Cond for their patience and constructive help. Last but not
least the contributors, who have remained unfailingly committed to this
project throughout the lengthy editing process; it has been great to work
with every one of you.
In the two volumes taking forward the work of the 2015 Women in
French UK conference (for details, see pp. 5–6) the research focus and
composition of each has been decided collectively by the editors, who
then shared the work of implementing it. Atack wrote the Introduction
and Conclusion to the first volume, Fell wrote the Introduction and
Holmes the Conclusion to this volume. Amendments and final versions
were then collectively decided.
MA, ASF, DH, IL
Glossary
Glossary
AMR Alliance Marxiste Révolutionnaire Trotskyist political movement
founded in 1969 and dissolved in 1974.
Archives du féminisme Feminist archive established at the University of
Angers by historian Christine Bard.
AVFT Association contre les violences faites aux femmes au travail
Organisation founded in 1985 to support women who experience sexual
discrimination, harassment or sexual violence at work.
AFJ Association des femmes journalistes Organisation founded in 1981
with the support of Yvette Roudy. Its aims were to defend and promote
the place of women in the media and defend the professional interests of
female journalists. It was dissolved in 2014.
La Barbe Feminist activist organisation founded in 2008, whose
campaigning particularly targets the exclusion or under-representation
of women in public and private institutions.
BMD Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand Library specialising in women’s
history and literature, rue Tolbiac, Paris.
Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir Feminist audiovisual archives
founded in 1982.
Le Cercle Elisabeth Dimitriev 1970s feminist movement founded in 1971
by Parisian women associated with the AMR.
Les Chiennes de garde Feminist organisation founded on the basis of a
manifesto launched by historian Florence Montreynaud in 1999, with
the aim of defending women against public criticism and abuse on the
basis of their sex.