Querelle des femmes

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Querelle des femmes , also Querelle des sexes , describes the centuries-long debate about the gender order in texts and images from the late Middle Ages to the French Revolution . The term, which was coined by Romansh literary studies at the end of the 19th century , represents a phenomenon initially in French cultural history that extended to all of Europe.

Word meaning

The meaning of querelle itself is subject to historical change. The term refers, also in its English, Spanish and Italian equivalents quarrel / querela, to debate, argument, controversy. In terms of its linguistic form he is ambiguous: Querelle des femmes / des sexes ( German : women / gender ) can both dispute the or women gender and armed to respectively represent the women in their families. Women can thus be both subjects and objects of debate. Today, Querelles des Femmes is understood as a comprehensive gender dispute in words and images, which has dealt with the social and intellectual position of women within society since its inception. It lasted until the French Revolution and beyond, and extended across Europe.

history

It is certain that since the 14th century at the latest there has been a lively circulation of writings in which the position of women and the gender order were discussed. Based on a purely theological endeavor to overcome the natural chaos of the sexes through divine order, lawyers initially acquired the subject to underpin the legal inequality of men and women. Secular scholars eventually took up the discourse and it slowly spread to the consciousness of all social classes.

It remained a predominantly male discourse, even if more and more learned women and artists took part. The argument was about male and female virtues, vices and abilities, about gender hierarchies and about whether the male treatment of the female sex in literature and in everyday life was appropriate or inappropriate. The French writer Christine de Pizan (1364–1429) was the first woman to speak up on this issue. Around 1404/5 she wrote the extensive work Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (The Book of the City of Women) in defense of women and in response to the rose novel by the cleric Jean de Meun (1240-1305), in which he said summarized misogyne image of women of his time. Pizan's writing is considered to be the beginning of the Querelle des femmes. Another example is the writing of the polymath and doctor Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) On the privilege and splendor of the female sex over the male , in which he campaigned for “equality of the sexes”. In the 16th century, since the reign of Elizabeth I , texts by British women emerged, "written in response to misogynous tirades, with the aim of refuting them".

In the salons of the 17th century, the debate was given a place where social problems were discussed under the leadership of women. There, Cartesianism was given feminist components and spread, and concepts for a different gender relationship were created. The coining of the term Preziosität as a way of life, feeling and expression of a primarily female salon audience took place in the context of the ongoing emancipatory discussions. The associated, sometimes exaggerated sophistication was exposed to laughter by Molière in his comedy Les Précieuses ridicules (The Ridiculous Precious). However, with the advent of the academies , female influence was inhibited as women were not allowed and thus the official exclusion of women from science began.

François Poullain de La Barre is considered to be the first to develop a philosophical underpinning for the theory of gender equality . In his well-received work De l'Egalite des deux Sexes (1673), he argues that male rule is not natural, but largely instilled, and pleads for an improvement in women's education. His conclusion was: "The mind has no gender".

The opposing position, which insisted on a fundamental difference between the sexes and the subordination of women, prevailed after the French Revolution , which in turn led to criticism based on the promise of equality of the European Enlightenment.

It is disputed whether the heterogeneous early modern writings of the Querelles des femmes can count as feminism avant la lettre , also early or proto-feminism. The historian of philosophy Elisabeth Gössmann emphasizes the “practical” relevance of the Querelles for the education of women and girls, a topic that became central in the First Women's Movement. Gisela Bock draws the conclusion that the Querelles des Femmes are broader than the modern term feminism, since it “includes not only women-friendly, but also misogynistic texts”.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elisabeth Gössmann : Frauengelehrsamkeit. 17th century. In: Andrea van Dülmen (Ed.): Women. A historical reader. Beck'sche Reihe, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-33117-3 , pp. 232-234, here p. 232 (based on: Gisela Brinker-Gabler (Ed.): German literature by women ).
  2. ↑ Gisela Bock , Margarete Zimmermann: The Querelle des Femmes in Europe. An introduction to the history of concepts and research. (= Querelles. Yearbook for Women's Research. Volume 2). 1997. (PDF)
  3. ^ Ute Gerhard: Gender dispute and clarification. In: dies .: Women's movement and feminism. A story since 1789. 2nd edition. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-56263-1 , p. 11 f.
  4. ^ Claudia Opitz-Belakhal : Gender history. (= Historical introductions). Campus Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-593-39183-0 , pp. 130 f.
  5. ↑ Jörg Jungmayr : Introduction to Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, to Valens Acidalius and the counter-writing by Gediccus […]. German translation from 1540 From the nobility and for meeting the female gender / Mr. Henrici Cornelij Agrippe / Löblichs Büchlin. In: Elisabeth Gössmann (Ed.): Archive for women's research in the history of philosophy and theology . Volume 4, Iudicium, Munich 1996 (first edition 1988), ISBN 3-89129-004-7 , pp. 46-52 and 63-100.
  6. ^ Moira Ferguson: Feminist Polemics. Writings by English women from the late Renaissance to the French Revolution. In: Querelles yearbook. 2/1997, pp. 292-316 (pdf)
  7. ^ Claudia Opitz-Belakhal: Gender history. (= Historical introductions). Campus Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-593-39183-0 , p. 132.