Forgotten No More: The Female Authoress Madame Germaine de Staël

Anyone heard of the great Romanticism authors Lord Byron or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? How about Romanticism painters like J.M. William Turner or Caspar David Friedrich? What about Romanticism musicians like Schubert, Liszt or Beethoven? Probably a resounding YES to all of those famous and talented men who are considered geniuses in their fields because they pushed boundaries and invented new techniques and ideas in their art. Romanticism is not about being lovey-dovey romantic at all, but more about the power and majesty of man in relation to the awe-inspiring grandeur of the natural world. To be considered a genius your artistic creations have to build off the established to produce new definitions of what is great. We should continue to give kudos to all artistic geniuses where they are due! But let’s not forget the women during the same time period who can likewise be considered and especially those who establish women characters as geniuses. 

Ever heard of the famous and talented authoress Madame Germaine de Staël? I’m not surprised if your answer is no. Napoleon Bonaparte really hated her so she was exiled from her beloved Paris, and unfortunately she was written out of the history books and out of literary anthologies (for the most part.) Her novel CORINNE, OR ITALY is one of my all time favorites so I was saddened, but not entirely shocked, to learn that the library didn’t own a copy. We now own a copy of CORINNE, OR ITALY (by Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine), 1766-1817., published 1805)- find it here!

Madame de Staël should be remembered and read because she was an influential writer and thinker, who proved that opposition can be inspiration. After being exiled from Paris, Staël set up a renowned and thriving salon in her home at Coppet, Switzerland. This became a locus for the great philosophical minds and writers of the Romanticism movement. Staël wrote novels, poems, philosophical treatises and started a female authorship trend that continued throughout the 1800s with great female authors like George Sand, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Gaskell,  Anne Radcliffe, and Christina Rossetti, to name just a few. Staël’s bestselling novel CORINNE, OR ITALY, was a subtle critique of Napoleon’s oppressive regime as he passed civil codes restricting the freedoms women previously gained during the French revolution. This novel pushed a radical proposition that a woman could be a genius on the stage, anticipating the prima donna figure, while tying in autobiographical references. This novel should be read alongside other French literature classics as she helped establish the genre and tradition of great female authors. 

(Warning! Spoilers below!)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been dumped by someone you were head over heels for, where you thought it was totally perfect and you’d live happily ever after? Well (spoiler alert!) Corinne was dumped by Oswald. And then he chooses to marry Corinne’s much younger half-sister who couldn’t be more different than Corinne.  Completely distraught, she settles into a depressed melancholic state because of it… and then she overcomes the melancholy and helps teach and guide another talented young girl to take her place on the stage. Corinne’s voice and fire is not stolen by a small inconsequential man, but instead her voice is channeled into a matriarchal lineage of talented women. If there was ever a “how to get over a dumb man” novel, this is the ultimate classics edition. I happened to be fully immersed in Corinne studies when a similar break up happened to me and the irony was so apparent. I needed to pick myself back up and find my voice again. Staël’s work helped me be able to do so! 

I respect and revere this female author and the way she set up future women’s writing achievements. She totally was a feminist in her day! Her novel CORINNE is a classic in my book and an overall great novel. 

Bless Me, Ultima

Bless Me, Ultima
By Rudolfo A. Anaya
Warner Books, (1973) 1994. 250 pages. Fiction.

This widely acclaimed and award winning novel for Chicano literature, tells of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s as he experiences the ups and downs of growing up. Antonio bonds with Ultima, a curandera (native traditional healer) as she lives with his struggling family. Ultima takes Antonio on a spiritual journey as he learns about the grittier aspects of life.  Antonio must negotiate his parents differing backgrounds, religion. life and death, healing powers, post WWII realities, and good and evil, ultimately arriving at who he wants to become. Antonio credits the shaping of life to this kind old woman who taught him and cared for him when his world was a turbulent and confusing mess.

This book is a classic that sinks into your soul and changes you- I highly recommend it for all mature teens and adults. Anaya writes with imaginative description and visceral clarity about the realities of life so this novel is not a thematically easy or relaxing read. I enjoyed the insights into New Mexican life during this time period and how the different worlds colliding must have been hard for a young person to grow up in. Coming of age stories always resonate with me and since Antonio must grapple with so many big issues, I found myself going on the same spiritual journey with him as I realized my own feelings on the issues.

Principles of Feminist Critique

1	Gender is historically contingent (located in time)
2	Gender is culturally specific (located in material practices and specific places
3	Gender is an interpretation of what female and male bodies mean in relation to what we believe about the world (our philosophy)
4	There is a cultural reciprocity between gender practices and perceptions of biology, and there is a tendency to forget that a fact is both observed and interpreted.
5	Frequently even though a gender practice has been discarded, the perspective it created on "nature" can be difficult to eliminate
6	Our systems of social policy and cultural practice reflect a tendency to conserve the ideological result of practices that are not longer apparent.
7	We let competing ideologies undermine healthful practices
8	Sexual inequality is the single most prevalent form of inequality in the world. the majority of those in poverty, in dire need of improved health care without access to education, without access to political rights are women
9	Open dialogue allows for the free flow of the material out of which all social policy and political practice is derived: ideas.

Developed by Brandie Siegfried, BYU English and Women's Studies Professor

from Women Studies 422: Feminist Theory

5 Biographies of Badass Women

#Whatireallyreallywant is for everyone to read about these important women! In no particular order or preference, each tells of a woman you should be aware of and knowledgeable about. #girlpower

Frida Kahlo was a famous surrealist and modern artist and should be remembered as more than just the wife of another famous Mexican artist. She is renowned for her inventive self-portraits and examining the tougher aspects of life through her paintings. This compilation is a first of it’s kind- an illustrated journal complete with Frida’s own thoughts, poems, dreams, sketches, self portraits and more. It covers the last ten years of her life from 1944-1954, in a captivating and sometimes haunting, sometimes witty way. Giving perspective on her turbulent relationship with Diego, living with a debilitating handicap and the ensuing surgeries, and insights on her creative process, this auto biography shines with Frida’s own hand.

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, Frida Kahlo

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Catherine the Great was the most renowned and longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762- 1796. She came to power after her husband was assassinated and while under her rule Russia became one of the great powers of Europe. Balancing the government, foreign policy, cultural development, domestic rebellion, wars, and welfare of the Russian people were all in her hands. This book accurately captures the life of this great women, giving details to her personal relationships, her well developed philosophical mind, and her successes and struggles in ruling the vast country of Russia.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Robert K. Massie

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Marie Sklodowska Curie was distinguished physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity (a term that she coined!). She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the only woman to win it twice, and the only person to win twice in multiple sciences.  She discovered two elements- polonium and radium. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris and became the first women to be entombed on her own merits in the Pantheon of Paris. This book is a visual journey through Marie’s life- collages, photos, clippings, drawings- giving a compelling narrative to the fascinating scientific significance of her work, while mixing in romance and intrigue.

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss

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Cleopatra has been imagined for centuries by poets, artists and historians alike in attempt to convey her beauty, wealth, power and importance. She was the last acting pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty founded by Alexander the Great. She was married twice to her brothers but her lovers- Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony place her as the most influential woman of the age.  This book separates fact from fiction to reveal in rich detail the dazzling life of this magnetic queen.

Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff

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Malala Yousafzai is a human rights activist known for her advocacy for education and women.  In her  province of Pakistan the local Taliban sometimes banned girls from attending school. Her family runs a chain of schools in that region and on October 9, 2012 a gunman boarded her school bus, asked for her name and shot her. After intensive recovery Malala is thriving and continues her advocacy against this kind of violence and discrimination. She was named one of TIME magazine’s most influential people in the world, she was the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace prize and she continues to speak at international conventions. This is her powerful story of a family uprooted by global terrorism, the fight for girl’s education, and her beliefs that have already changed the world.

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai

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Queen of fashion : what Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution

Queen of fashion : what Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution
By Caroline Weber
Holt, 2006. 412 pages. Nonfiction, biography.


In a unique approach to biography, Caroline Weber applies Marie Antoinette’s interest in fashion to tell the story of her life. This tragic queen’s life is punctuated with interesting fashion choices and became both her means of expressing power and her ultimate downfall. Beginning with her arrival to Versailles as a young girl, and ending with her death during the French Revolution, we see Antoinette’s human and courageous side as she faces internal and foreign political opponents. This books adds a new facet to Marie Antoinette scholarship and tells her tale in a very approachable, almost novel-like readability.

I had a very skeptical view of Marie Antoinette before this book but Weber’s biography gives new light to why this French queen behaved as she did, and more importantly why she dressed how she dressed. I grew more sympathetic towards Antoinette and even though I knew she would be killed, I dreaded and mourned that outcome as the book progressed. Learning how fashion choices can shape culture and political outcomes is especially fascinating to me because it is an ever present undercurrent of society but so often discredited or forgotten. I would recommend this book to those interested in a more scholarly biography or an interest in fashion, French history, art history, or influential women.