Another Humanism: Gendering Early Modern Libertinism and the Boundaries of Subjectivity
The project addresses the history of subjectivity through an exploration of female libertinism and freethinking in French literature 1500–1700. The purpose is to highlight the diversity of early modern subjectivity and to give new historical insight on present critical discussions concerning the modern subject within posthumanism, ecological humanities and new materialism. The theoretical renewal that this post-anthropocentric turn in the humanities implies will be put to critical use in a study on early modern female writers and freethinkers from Marguerite de Navarre to Ninon de Lenclos that in various senses and genres – novels, maxims, drama, poetry, letters, fairy tales – transgress and undermine dominant conventions and norms determining early modern feminine subjectivity. By this focus the project highlights other forms of subjectivity than the ones usually related to a humanist narrative based on the idea of human sovereignty that was first articulated during the renaissance and that later on became established as the rational and autonomous modern subject. Thus, the project will contribute to a renewal of European literary history enabling a revaluation of the humanist tradition and its relevance today.
Final report
The purpose and development of the project
The purpose of the project was to increase knowledge of the history of subjectivity by rereading French early modern women writers (1500–1700), who belonged to a freethinking or libertine (the terms are synonyms) current in the humanist tradition: Marguerite de Navarre, Hélisenne de Crenne, Queen Christina, Antoinette Deshoulières, Anne de Lenclos and Madame d’Aulnoy. These authors write in different genres and demonstrate that the humanist tradition harbors other forms of subjectivity than the ones usually appears in a more conventional historiography.
Through articles, monographs and various forms of presentations we have been able to show how these women writers express different conceptions of human rationality and autonomy from those established in the tradition after Descartes and Kant, and which has come to define the modern subject. The project has also highlighted how these, often, marginalized forms of subjectivity expressed by early modern women writers can contribute to a r revaluation of the humanist tradition and its relevance today.
A brief description of the implementation
The project has essentially been implemented according to the plan. The preliminary ideas have proved very fruitful. The project’s researchers, Franzén (PI) and Gerdes changed workplaces at the beginning of the project period, and the distribution of research time changed slightly. Franzén has gone up to 50% (from 30%) and Gerdes down to 50% (from 70%). This is due to research time at their current position (at Stockholm University and Roskilde University).
During the first two years, the pandemic meant certain limitations on the possibilities of meetings, but the collaboration has worked satisfactorily on Zoom, even if a certain delay in terms of planned workshops and conferences became inevitable.
The first workshop was organized at SU in September 2020 and the second at Roskilde University in June 2022. A concluding conference was organized at Stockholm University in February 2023.
Several new international contacts and networks have been developed during the project period.
The project’s most significant results and a discussion of the conclusions
Results
1. That there are early modern women writers who express a free-thinking humanism that previous research has assessed as preserved for male writers.
2. That those early modern female libertines brought forward other forms of subjectivity—freer forms that today seem more relevant than ever.
3. That the free-thinking vein in the humanist tradition shows a potentiality to change destructive ways of being and relating to others—in other words, another humanism.
Conclusions
Through the study of early modern female freethinkers in France, the project has shown how, in different ways and in different genres, these women transcend and undermine dominant norms of femininity and highlight forms of subjectivity other than those that appear in a conventional humanist and historical narrative based on the idea of human sovereignty.
The humanist tradition harbors a tension in its view of the role of human reason. Yet this tradition is often presented as a more or less unified main line running from the Renaissance to the self-understanding of modernity. Through its studies, the project proves that humanism has always contained doubts about the supposed sovereignty of human reason, and thus brings to the fore female voices that question the idea that humans are defined by reason rather than corporeality, as well as the long-lasting idea that man should rule over nature by virtue of this reason.
New research questions
One new ambition is to further link the early modern discussion of the subject disclosed in the project’s material to the ecological questions of our time.
Dissemination and new collaborations
Information about the project and its implementation can be found on the project’s website:
https://www.su.se/forskning/forskningsprojekt/en-annan-humanism-kvinnliga-tidigmoderna-fritänkare-och-subjektivitetens-gränser?open-collapse-boxes=research-project-description
Franzén and Gerdes have presented the results at several seminars, workshops and conferences, individually and jointly in national and international contexts:
Conference presentations:
Franzén:
Och du som talar, vem är du? Om fåglar, människor, vargar och språk i barockens litteratur, Human and animal in the Baroque. Interactions, Representations, Transformations, Baroque Academy’s Annual Symposium, November 2020.
Tidigmoderna fritänkare och posthumanism avant la lettre, EKO 2020: Comparative Literature, Environment and Sustainability, December 2020.
Une réflexion sur le libertinage dans l’Heptaméron, online workshop: Atelier franco-nordique, June 2021
Queen Christina’s Heroism, “Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe”, Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) October 2021.
She Preferred the Condition of Sheep to that of Humans – On Antoinette Deshoulières’ Naturalism, RSA French Literature Seminar: Women Writers, Women in Writing, RSA Virtual, April, 2021.
(key note) Réflexions sur le naturalisme dans la poésie d’Antoinette Deshoulières, Curiosité, entreprises intellectuelles et explorations scientifiques, Université de Nantes, November 2021
”Cette fière raison dont on a fait tant de bruit” – Antoinette Deshoulières’s critique of rationalism, RSA The Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, April 2022.
(key note) Queen Christina’s Freethinking in Response to Early Modern Subjectivation, Early Modern Women on Politics and Ethics, Gothenburg University, Oktober 2023.
Gerdes:
Between Identity, Pseudonymity, and Anonymity: The Resistance of Female Authorship in Angoysses Douloureuses (1538), Recovering Women’s Identities between Centre and Periphery (16th-20th centuries), University of London, 5-6 mars 2020.
Dyr og kvindelig subjektivitet i eventyrgenren, Human and animal in the Baroque. Interactions, Representations, Transformations, Baroque Academy’s Annual Symposium, November 2020.
Udfordringer af menneskets exceptionelle status i tidligt moderne eventyr, EKO 2020: Comparative Literature, Environment and Sustainability, December 2020.
Love as Practice in Hélsenne de Crenne’s Epistre familieres et invectives, RSA French Literature Seminar: Women Writers, Women in Writing, RSA Virtual, April 2021.
Les épistres familières et invectives (1539) d'Hélisenne de Crenne: la subjectivité et l’amour, online workshop: Atelier franco-nordique, June 2021
Subjectivity and Female Freethinking in Early Modern France, introductory online workshop in Philosophy In Other Words, Research Network on Early Modern Women and Philosophy, October 2021.
Epicurean Virtues for a Post-Heroic Age? Tracing the Critique of Heroism in Madame Deshoulières’ Poetry and Drama. “Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe”, Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) October 2021.
A Discussion of Curiosa in Fairy Tales by Madame d’Aulnoy between Cabinets of Curiosity and Mechanical Philosophy, Curiosité, entreprises intellectuelles et explorations scientifiques, and project presentation, Université de Nantes, November 2021.
A Conteuse’s Ethics of Love and Freedom in Animality, RSA The Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, April 2022.
The final conference Another Humanism (SU) Februrary 2023 can be found here: https://www.su.se/department-of-culture-and-aesthetics/calendar/another-humanism-traditions-of-critique-and-resistance-1.602429
The purpose of the project was to increase knowledge of the history of subjectivity by rereading French early modern women writers (1500–1700), who belonged to a freethinking or libertine (the terms are synonyms) current in the humanist tradition: Marguerite de Navarre, Hélisenne de Crenne, Queen Christina, Antoinette Deshoulières, Anne de Lenclos and Madame d’Aulnoy. These authors write in different genres and demonstrate that the humanist tradition harbors other forms of subjectivity than the ones usually appears in a more conventional historiography.
Through articles, monographs and various forms of presentations we have been able to show how these women writers express different conceptions of human rationality and autonomy from those established in the tradition after Descartes and Kant, and which has come to define the modern subject. The project has also highlighted how these, often, marginalized forms of subjectivity expressed by early modern women writers can contribute to a r revaluation of the humanist tradition and its relevance today.
A brief description of the implementation
The project has essentially been implemented according to the plan. The preliminary ideas have proved very fruitful. The project’s researchers, Franzén (PI) and Gerdes changed workplaces at the beginning of the project period, and the distribution of research time changed slightly. Franzén has gone up to 50% (from 30%) and Gerdes down to 50% (from 70%). This is due to research time at their current position (at Stockholm University and Roskilde University).
During the first two years, the pandemic meant certain limitations on the possibilities of meetings, but the collaboration has worked satisfactorily on Zoom, even if a certain delay in terms of planned workshops and conferences became inevitable.
The first workshop was organized at SU in September 2020 and the second at Roskilde University in June 2022. A concluding conference was organized at Stockholm University in February 2023.
Several new international contacts and networks have been developed during the project period.
The project’s most significant results and a discussion of the conclusions
Results
1. That there are early modern women writers who express a free-thinking humanism that previous research has assessed as preserved for male writers.
2. That those early modern female libertines brought forward other forms of subjectivity—freer forms that today seem more relevant than ever.
3. That the free-thinking vein in the humanist tradition shows a potentiality to change destructive ways of being and relating to others—in other words, another humanism.
Conclusions
Through the study of early modern female freethinkers in France, the project has shown how, in different ways and in different genres, these women transcend and undermine dominant norms of femininity and highlight forms of subjectivity other than those that appear in a conventional humanist and historical narrative based on the idea of human sovereignty.
The humanist tradition harbors a tension in its view of the role of human reason. Yet this tradition is often presented as a more or less unified main line running from the Renaissance to the self-understanding of modernity. Through its studies, the project proves that humanism has always contained doubts about the supposed sovereignty of human reason, and thus brings to the fore female voices that question the idea that humans are defined by reason rather than corporeality, as well as the long-lasting idea that man should rule over nature by virtue of this reason.
New research questions
One new ambition is to further link the early modern discussion of the subject disclosed in the project’s material to the ecological questions of our time.
Dissemination and new collaborations
Information about the project and its implementation can be found on the project’s website:
https://www.su.se/forskning/forskningsprojekt/en-annan-humanism-kvinnliga-tidigmoderna-fritänkare-och-subjektivitetens-gränser?open-collapse-boxes=research-project-description
Franzén and Gerdes have presented the results at several seminars, workshops and conferences, individually and jointly in national and international contexts:
Conference presentations:
Franzén:
Och du som talar, vem är du? Om fåglar, människor, vargar och språk i barockens litteratur, Human and animal in the Baroque. Interactions, Representations, Transformations, Baroque Academy’s Annual Symposium, November 2020.
Tidigmoderna fritänkare och posthumanism avant la lettre, EKO 2020: Comparative Literature, Environment and Sustainability, December 2020.
Une réflexion sur le libertinage dans l’Heptaméron, online workshop: Atelier franco-nordique, June 2021
Queen Christina’s Heroism, “Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe”, Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) October 2021.
She Preferred the Condition of Sheep to that of Humans – On Antoinette Deshoulières’ Naturalism, RSA French Literature Seminar: Women Writers, Women in Writing, RSA Virtual, April, 2021.
(key note) Réflexions sur le naturalisme dans la poésie d’Antoinette Deshoulières, Curiosité, entreprises intellectuelles et explorations scientifiques, Université de Nantes, November 2021
”Cette fière raison dont on a fait tant de bruit” – Antoinette Deshoulières’s critique of rationalism, RSA The Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, April 2022.
(key note) Queen Christina’s Freethinking in Response to Early Modern Subjectivation, Early Modern Women on Politics and Ethics, Gothenburg University, Oktober 2023.
Gerdes:
Between Identity, Pseudonymity, and Anonymity: The Resistance of Female Authorship in Angoysses Douloureuses (1538), Recovering Women’s Identities between Centre and Periphery (16th-20th centuries), University of London, 5-6 mars 2020.
Dyr og kvindelig subjektivitet i eventyrgenren, Human and animal in the Baroque. Interactions, Representations, Transformations, Baroque Academy’s Annual Symposium, November 2020.
Udfordringer af menneskets exceptionelle status i tidligt moderne eventyr, EKO 2020: Comparative Literature, Environment and Sustainability, December 2020.
Love as Practice in Hélsenne de Crenne’s Epistre familieres et invectives, RSA French Literature Seminar: Women Writers, Women in Writing, RSA Virtual, April 2021.
Les épistres familières et invectives (1539) d'Hélisenne de Crenne: la subjectivité et l’amour, online workshop: Atelier franco-nordique, June 2021
Subjectivity and Female Freethinking in Early Modern France, introductory online workshop in Philosophy In Other Words, Research Network on Early Modern Women and Philosophy, October 2021.
Epicurean Virtues for a Post-Heroic Age? Tracing the Critique of Heroism in Madame Deshoulières’ Poetry and Drama. “Epicureanism and Stoicism in Women’s Literary Production in 16th and 17th Century Europe”, Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) October 2021.
A Discussion of Curiosa in Fairy Tales by Madame d’Aulnoy between Cabinets of Curiosity and Mechanical Philosophy, Curiosité, entreprises intellectuelles et explorations scientifiques, and project presentation, Université de Nantes, November 2021.
A Conteuse’s Ethics of Love and Freedom in Animality, RSA The Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, April 2022.
The final conference Another Humanism (SU) Februrary 2023 can be found here: https://www.su.se/department-of-culture-and-aesthetics/calendar/another-humanism-traditions-of-critique-and-resistance-1.602429