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The chapters in this book were first presented at the Women in French Biennial Conference held in Leeds in May 2004. The twelve essays explore the multifaceted commodification of the female body and provide insights into the mutations of French society and culture. British and French scholars examine the paradoxes and contradictions embodied in various images and discourses related to health and illness from different perspectives, ranging from sociological studies to analyses of working diaries, children's medical encyclopaedias and literary texts.
The 'resilient female body' as epitomised by the First World War nurse tends by the end of the twentieth century to be construed as the 'sanitised female body', subjected to mind/body dualities largely controlled by the medical professions. Thus, maternity and related issues such as birth and contraceptive technologies figure as major themes with contributors revealing unresolved ambivalences. Other chapters focus on how women's economic activity can affect their individual health and, potentially, that of others. A further prominent theme shows how, for contemporary women writers, serious illnesses such as cancer and madness in women can be seen as rich metaphors for the ills of a male-dominated society. Duras's alcoholism and Aragon's portrayals of prostitution are also discussed.
List of contents
Contents: Maggie Allison/Yvette Rocheron: Introduction - Joanna Shearer: French Women's First World War Political Journalism: War's Impact on the Female Body - Alison S. Fell: Fallen Angels? The Red Cross Nurse in French First World War Discourse - Edith Taïeb : Hubertine Auclert : les conséquences mortifères de 'l'imprévoyance' des hommes seuls au pouvoir - Mairi Maclean: Women Directors in France and the UK: Health at the Helm - Renate Günther : 'Une femme qui boit, c'est scandaleux' : Marguerite Duras and Female Alcoholism in France - Angela Kimyongür: Towards a Healthy Social Status for Women? Capitalism and the Figure of the Prostitute in the Novels of Louis Aragon - Anne Simon : Embryon, femme, médecin : accouchement et avortement chez les romancières contemporaines - Helen Vassallo: Metaphors of Dis(-)ease: Malady and Malaise in Jeanne Hyvrard's Les Prunes de Cythère and Le Cercan - Cathy Wardle: Controlling the Female Body: Medicine, Technology and Maternity in the Work of Jeanne Hyvrard - Christine Détrez : Il était une fois le corps... la construction biologique du corps dans les encyclopédies pour enfants - Alison Martin: Birth Culture in France: A Painless Subjectification - Florence Potot: Has Contraception become a Virtual Freedom for French Women? Le paradoxe contraceptif français.
About the author
The Editors: Maggie Allison is Honorary Visiting Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Bradford. Her research and publications in gender and media in France cover advertising, the women¿s press, sexual harrassment and the role of women in politics.
Yvette Rocheron is Honorary Fellow in French at the University of Leicester. A sociologist, her current interests and publications cover ethnic minority health in Britain, French television culture, immigration, mixed families and multiculturalism in France.
