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Slavery and Feminism in the Writings of Madame De Staël

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Slavery and Feminism in the Writings of Madame De Staël ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: Daquin, Françoise Marie Danielle (2020) Slavery and feminism in the writings of Madame de Staël. PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/5f07e50eaaa2b Copyright © 2020 Françoise Marie Danielle Daquin. The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] Slavery and Feminism in the Writings of Madame de Staël Thesis submitted by Françoise Marie Danielle DAQUIN in February 2020 For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts, Society and Education James Cook University 1 Acknowledgements I am eternally grateful to Dr Janice Wegner, my advisor and my mentor. Jan’s advice has always been indispensable. Thanks to her suggestion at the end of my undergraduate degree I embarked on this journey, the writing of this thesis. Beside her precious help, Jan supported me during my bouts of ill-health, and gave me the confidence to pursue my research and to complete it ‘nearly’ on time. I too would like to thank Dr Claire Brennan, my secondary advisor, for her valuable editorial comments. I thank Stéphanie Génand, the President of La Société des Etudes Staëliennes, whose work on Madame de Staël inspired me, and for encouraging me to participate in the numerous conferences over which she presided in Paris. A special thanks also to my dear friends, Kem and John Dorney, for their attention and kindness, and for having been great supporters of my work in every way. Finally, my two sons, Samuel and Sébastien, and my grandson Dominic for their encouragement and affection. They gave me the opportunity to show that age and a second language are not impediments to the pursuit of one’s passion for History. ii Statement of the Contribution of Others Nature of Contribution Names, Titles and Affiliations of Co- Assistance Contributors Intellectual support Editorial assistance Dr Janice Wegner James Cook University Primary Advisor Dr Claire Brennan James Cook University Secondary Advisor Formatting Katharine J Fowler Academic Consultant Financial support Research costs JCU Postgraduate research funding Scholarships Australian Government APA (Australian Postgraduate Award) Fee Exemption Scholarship iii Abstract Anne-Louise Germaine de Staël devoted her works to the idea of freedom, particularly for women and slaves. As an intellectual and a writer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in France, she judged not only her community but its political regimes according to the principles of feminism and abolitionism. As a woman, she had only two possible ways to play a public role: to hold a salon like her mother, or to publish books. She did both, and through these acquired considerable influence. De Staël was a feminist whose work queries the subordination of women to men, and her strong liberal position led her to equate the condition of women with that of slaves. De Staël’s liberalism was a product of the Enlightenment and early Romanticism. Although she never departed from the Enlightenment’s principles, she displayed a more Romantic attitude when she promoted ‘enthusiasm’ and emotion, which were reflected in her art, politics and love life. Feminism De Staël’s most important struggle was her fight for the rights of women to education and freedom of thought. She was a feminist who questioned the organisation of society and the place of women in it. During the French Revolution, despite claims advocating gender equality and social justice, the status of women regressed rapidly. Like her feminist contemporaries, she advocated that women ought to be judged by the same liberal code as men while she also praised the positive aspects of female gender roles. De Staël was a moderate feminist who celebrated the feminine. She believed that if educated women retained their traditional female values, they could play an effective role in society. Slavery The European slave trade peaked in the eighteenth century, and feminists were among those campaigning for its abolition. Probably initially influenced by her father’s stand against slavery, de Staël fought against it in life and in many of her writings. She took a pragmatic and political position when she addressed the subject in her literature, when she supported the campaign of William Wilberforce, and the fight of the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture. iv Intersection of Feminism and Slavery in Madame de Staël’s Writings There is a strong link between abolitionism and feminism in de Staël’s work, as in the works of other turn of the nineteenth-century feminists. Feminism was closely related to abolitionism as married women, especially from the upper classes, could identify with slaves because they too lacked certain civil rights and were treated as property. While de Staël fought for women to be treated fairly, she also introduced the notion of ‘enslavement’ to strong emotions which was as distressing as the physical and cultural restrictions enforced on women, and could be used to reinforce those restrictions. In her novels and treatises, she demonstrates that to be in the throes of passion is destructive, causing a loss of autonomy, identity and self-control, the same predicament suffered by slaves. While numerous biographers of Madame de Staël have noted the impact her work has had on a range of political, social and historical matters, few have considered the way her feminism and abolitionism interacted and intersected in her work. This study analyses de Staël’s work in the context of her times and demonstrates that not only did she advocate passionately for abolitionism and feminism, but that she saw how the repression of women and enslavement of Africans were linked in the society of eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries France. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ ii Statement of the Contribution of Others .......................................................................... iii Abstract .................................................................................................................................. iv Feminism ............................................................................................................................... iv Slavery .................................................................................................................................. iv Intersection of Feminism and Slavery in Madame de Staël’s Writings ................................. v Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. vi List of Plates ....................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 De Staël and slavery ............................................................................................................ 19 1.2 Research Questions and Thesis Structure ...................................................................... 23 Chapter 2. Biography of Madame de Staël ....................................................................... 26 Chapter 3. Women and Early Feminism in France ........................................................... 59 3.1 Women in the Ancien Regime ....................................................................................... 59 3.2 The Enlightenment and Feminism ................................................................................. 62 3.2.1 Enlightenment thinking about gender ................................................................................. 63 3.2.2 Societal changes during the Enlightenment. ....................................................................... 66 3.2.3 Philosophes of the Enlightenment ...................................................................................... 74 3.2.4 Rousseau and the Romantic Movement. ............................................................................. 80 3.2.5 Enemies of the Enlightenment ............................................................................................ 83 3.2.6 Feminists in the eighteenth century ..................................................................................... 85 3.3 The French Revolution .................................................................................................. 87 Chapter 4. Madame de Staël’s Feminism .......................................................................... 96 4.1 The Philosophes’ Influence on Madame de Staël’s Thought and Feminism ................ 97 4.2 Madame de Staël and Revolutionary Politics .............................................................. 107 4.3 The Role of Salons and Literature in Madame de Staël’s Feminism .......................... 112 4.3.1 Salons in Paris and in Coppet ............................................................................................ 112 4.3.2 Madame de Staël’s nationalism and cosmopolitanism
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