Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers the links between women and genius in the figure of Mme De Staël's Corinne (from her 1807 of the same name). At the time of its publication women there seemed to be no place ...
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This chapter considers the links between women and genius in the figure of Mme De Staël's Corinne (from her 1807 of the same name). At the time of its publication women there seemed to be no place for women in genius or for genius in women. At the same time, however, the novel, which was traditionally associated with a female readership, was gaining status as a literary genre. Mme de Staël, as one of the rare women commentators on genius, curiously made no explicit attempt to counter the arguments of those who denied genius to her sex and even echoed many of their assumptions. Yet she would eventually come to portray the heroine of her second novel, Corinne, as an unambiguous incarnation of female genius.Less
This chapter considers the links between women and genius in the figure of Mme De Staël's Corinne (from her 1807 of the same name). At the time of its publication women there seemed to be no place for women in genius or for genius in women. At the same time, however, the novel, which was traditionally associated with a female readership, was gaining status as a literary genre. Mme de Staël, as one of the rare women commentators on genius, curiously made no explicit attempt to counter the arguments of those who denied genius to her sex and even echoed many of their assumptions. Yet she would eventually come to portray the heroine of her second novel, Corinne, as an unambiguous incarnation of female genius.
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published ...
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This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published under the collective title Le Génie feminine. Her perspective is predominantly psychoanalytic as she approaches her subject with a certain boldness as she treats female genius as a given rather than defensively pleading the cause. Hence, collectively, the trilogy offers a psychoanalytically grounded account of gender and femininity as part of its reflection on genius. Genius takes a new, explicitly gendered form here and it does so thanks to the mix of literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis that is characteristic of the later years of “French theory.”Less
This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published under the collective title Le Génie feminine. Her perspective is predominantly psychoanalytic as she approaches her subject with a certain boldness as she treats female genius as a given rather than defensively pleading the cause. Hence, collectively, the trilogy offers a psychoanalytically grounded account of gender and femininity as part of its reflection on genius. Genius takes a new, explicitly gendered form here and it does so thanks to the mix of literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis that is characteristic of the later years of “French theory.”
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book spans three centuries to provide the first full account of the long and diverse history of genius in France. Exploring a wide range of examples from literature, philosophy, and history, as ...
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This book spans three centuries to provide the first full account of the long and diverse history of genius in France. Exploring a wide range of examples from literature, philosophy, and history, as well as medicine, psychology, and journalism, the book examines the ways in which the idea of genius has been ceaselessly reflected on and redefined through its uses in these different contexts. The book traces its varying fortunes through the madness and imposture with which genius is often associated, and through the observations of those who determine its presence in others. The book considers the modern beginnings of genius in eighteenth-century aesthetics and the works of philosophes such as Diderot. It then investigates the nineteenth-century notion of national and collective genius, the self-appointed role of Romantic poets as misunderstood geniuses, the recurrent obsession with failed genius in the realist novels of writers like Balzac and Zola, the contested category of female genius, and the medical literature that viewed genius as a form of pathology. The book shows how twentieth-century views of genius narrowed through its association with IQ and child prodigies, and discusses the different ways major theorists—including Sartre, Barthes, Derrida, and Kristeva—have repudiated and subsequently revived the concept. The book brings a fresh approach to French intellectual and cultural history, and to the burgeoning field of genius studies.Less
This book spans three centuries to provide the first full account of the long and diverse history of genius in France. Exploring a wide range of examples from literature, philosophy, and history, as well as medicine, psychology, and journalism, the book examines the ways in which the idea of genius has been ceaselessly reflected on and redefined through its uses in these different contexts. The book traces its varying fortunes through the madness and imposture with which genius is often associated, and through the observations of those who determine its presence in others. The book considers the modern beginnings of genius in eighteenth-century aesthetics and the works of philosophes such as Diderot. It then investigates the nineteenth-century notion of national and collective genius, the self-appointed role of Romantic poets as misunderstood geniuses, the recurrent obsession with failed genius in the realist novels of writers like Balzac and Zola, the contested category of female genius, and the medical literature that viewed genius as a form of pathology. The book shows how twentieth-century views of genius narrowed through its association with IQ and child prodigies, and discusses the different ways major theorists—including Sartre, Barthes, Derrida, and Kristeva—have repudiated and subsequently revived the concept. The book brings a fresh approach to French intellectual and cultural history, and to the burgeoning field of genius studies.
Birgit Schippers
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640898
- eISBN:
- 9780748671830
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640898.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Julia Kristeva's writings on the female subject and on feminist politics continue to trouble many of her readers; as yet, there exists no unified response to her ideas in contemporary feminism. Julia ...
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Julia Kristeva's writings on the female subject and on feminist politics continue to trouble many of her readers; as yet, there exists no unified response to her ideas in contemporary feminism. Julia Kristeva and Feminist Thought offers a novel and engaging appraisal of Kristeva's recent work that recuperates her significance for a feminist project. Drawing on her recent texts on revolt, female genius and freedom, the book provides a detailed assessment of the diverse feminist responses to Kristeva's key ideas, and it demonstrates how feminism's troubled relations with Kristeva can only be understood by attending to the plurality and heterogeneity of contemporary feminist positions. As the book suggests, any feminist appropriation of Kristeva's ideas requires a reading against the grain, as well as careful attention to their positioning along the fault-lines that run through contemporary feminism. While considering Kristeva's ambivalence about the importance of feminism, the book provides a sympathetic account of her radical philosophy of feminine heterogeneity, her concern with singularity and freedom, and the deeply ethical orientation of her work towards conditions of otherness. It argues that while conceptualising feminism in such a way can be profoundly unsettling, it also keeps feminism's plural and diverse theory and practice alive.Less
Julia Kristeva's writings on the female subject and on feminist politics continue to trouble many of her readers; as yet, there exists no unified response to her ideas in contemporary feminism. Julia Kristeva and Feminist Thought offers a novel and engaging appraisal of Kristeva's recent work that recuperates her significance for a feminist project. Drawing on her recent texts on revolt, female genius and freedom, the book provides a detailed assessment of the diverse feminist responses to Kristeva's key ideas, and it demonstrates how feminism's troubled relations with Kristeva can only be understood by attending to the plurality and heterogeneity of contemporary feminist positions. As the book suggests, any feminist appropriation of Kristeva's ideas requires a reading against the grain, as well as careful attention to their positioning along the fault-lines that run through contemporary feminism. While considering Kristeva's ambivalence about the importance of feminism, the book provides a sympathetic account of her radical philosophy of feminine heterogeneity, her concern with singularity and freedom, and the deeply ethical orientation of her work towards conditions of otherness. It argues that while conceptualising feminism in such a way can be profoundly unsettling, it also keeps feminism's plural and diverse theory and practice alive.
Birgit Schippers
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640898
- eISBN:
- 9780748671830
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640898.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter introduces Kristeva's recent writings on the female genius, focusing on her work on Hannah Arendt and on the development of Arendtian themes in Kristeva's ideas. So far, this aspect of ...
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This chapter introduces Kristeva's recent writings on the female genius, focusing on her work on Hannah Arendt and on the development of Arendtian themes in Kristeva's ideas. So far, this aspect of Kristeva's œuvre has not received much coverage in the critical commentary; hence, this chapter aims to provide a more detailed examination and discussion of Kristeva's work on Arendt, and seeks to initiate a feminist interpretation of these texts. It begins by attending to an exposition and assessment of Kristeva's Romantic heritage and its impact on the concept of (female) genius; it then proceeds to discuss her engagement with Arendtian conceptions of narrative, life and rebirth, before considering the question of political bonds and its implications for feminist thought. The chapter concludes with some tentative thoughts on a recent development in Kristeva's writings: namely, her engagement with the work of Simone de Beauvoir. Building upon Kristeva's insistence on the singularity and plurality of life, it will be suggested that her engagement with Arendt's ideas establishes the framework of a political philosophy that could, potentially, come to shape a feminist appropriation of Kristeva's work.Less
This chapter introduces Kristeva's recent writings on the female genius, focusing on her work on Hannah Arendt and on the development of Arendtian themes in Kristeva's ideas. So far, this aspect of Kristeva's œuvre has not received much coverage in the critical commentary; hence, this chapter aims to provide a more detailed examination and discussion of Kristeva's work on Arendt, and seeks to initiate a feminist interpretation of these texts. It begins by attending to an exposition and assessment of Kristeva's Romantic heritage and its impact on the concept of (female) genius; it then proceeds to discuss her engagement with Arendtian conceptions of narrative, life and rebirth, before considering the question of political bonds and its implications for feminist thought. The chapter concludes with some tentative thoughts on a recent development in Kristeva's writings: namely, her engagement with the work of Simone de Beauvoir. Building upon Kristeva's insistence on the singularity and plurality of life, it will be suggested that her engagement with Arendt's ideas establishes the framework of a political philosophy that could, potentially, come to shape a feminist appropriation of Kristeva's work.
Alison Jasper
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198722618
- eISBN:
- 9780191789311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198722618.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Looking back over two decades, the author recalls her appropriation of theoretical tools from the French poststructuralist philosopher, Julia Kristeva: first to read women and the feminine-identified ...
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Looking back over two decades, the author recalls her appropriation of theoretical tools from the French poststructuralist philosopher, Julia Kristeva: first to read women and the feminine-identified flesh back into biblical texts and to resist older readings that viewed these presences as inferior agents or contaminants. Secondly Kristeva’s idea of female genius gives theoretical support to the case that women continually challenge orthodox biblical readings in inauspicious male-normative circumstances by reading the Bible for themselves. Illustrating the concept of female genius, the chapter returns to Jane Leade, a seventeenth-century visionary. She exemplifies the capacity of women to bring something singular and authentic—such as her descriptions of the biblical figure of Wisdom as female and her dream-visions of bodily restorations—to their readings of the Bible. The author continues to pose the question as to whether or not women (and other genders) can continue to profit from reading the Bible.Less
Looking back over two decades, the author recalls her appropriation of theoretical tools from the French poststructuralist philosopher, Julia Kristeva: first to read women and the feminine-identified flesh back into biblical texts and to resist older readings that viewed these presences as inferior agents or contaminants. Secondly Kristeva’s idea of female genius gives theoretical support to the case that women continually challenge orthodox biblical readings in inauspicious male-normative circumstances by reading the Bible for themselves. Illustrating the concept of female genius, the chapter returns to Jane Leade, a seventeenth-century visionary. She exemplifies the capacity of women to bring something singular and authentic—such as her descriptions of the biblical figure of Wisdom as female and her dream-visions of bodily restorations—to their readings of the Bible. The author continues to pose the question as to whether or not women (and other genders) can continue to profit from reading the Bible.
Renée Bergland
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195385359
- eISBN:
- 9780190252786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195385359.003.0027
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature
This chapter focuses on novels written by women in the United States from 1790 to 1870, with special reference to the issues of female genius, assertiveness, and “self-dependence” that challenge the ...
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This chapter focuses on novels written by women in the United States from 1790 to 1870, with special reference to the issues of female genius, assertiveness, and “self-dependence” that challenge the conventions of female domesticity. It explores how female novelists such as Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, E. D. E. N. Southworth, and Louisa May Alcott worked to highlight women’s educational and political rights and to redefine their role in U.S. life. It also considers the influence of women writers on romantic thought before concluding with an analysis of a number of women’s novels such as Germaine de Staël’s Corinne (1807), Alcott’s Little Women (1868–1869), Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time (1855), Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World (1850), and Maria Cummins’s The Lamplighter (1854).Less
This chapter focuses on novels written by women in the United States from 1790 to 1870, with special reference to the issues of female genius, assertiveness, and “self-dependence” that challenge the conventions of female domesticity. It explores how female novelists such as Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, E. D. E. N. Southworth, and Louisa May Alcott worked to highlight women’s educational and political rights and to redefine their role in U.S. life. It also considers the influence of women writers on romantic thought before concluding with an analysis of a number of women’s novels such as Germaine de Staël’s Corinne (1807), Alcott’s Little Women (1868–1869), Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time (1855), Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World (1850), and Maria Cummins’s The Lamplighter (1854).
