Please join us for the launch of our new co-edited volume, Women and Power in Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures and Societies, on 12 May, 17:30 - 19:00, Bush House Central, (S)2.01. Drinks and nibbles provided.

We are delighted to announce that the launch will be preceded by a talk from Professor Alison Rice (University of Notre Dame), who will focus on the importance of collective power among contemporary women writers of French and show extracts from her film Itineraries.

Space is limited so booking is required. Please email Siobhan McIlvanney on siobhan.mcilvanney@kcl.ac.uk to book.

Women and Power in Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures and Societies

The women represented in this volume as both authors and protagonists exert power by resisting the social paradigms that govern how they ‘should’ behave – by thwarting expectations of typical ‘feminine’ conduct (whether in relation to female corporeality and sexuality) or by their (non)adherence to the institutions of marriage and motherhood. However, they also claim power by espousing more conventionally ‘feminine’ roles, recuperating and revaluing those that entail caring and nurturing. They emphasise, in ways consistent with the growing body of feminist work on care relations, the positive, life-affirming potential that such roles embody.

Revisiting Itineraries and Framing Empowered Pathways: Worldwide Women Writers in the Literary Capital of Paris

In her film Itineraries, Alison Rice invites contemporary women writers of French to gather for a conversation in the heart of Paris. Each author hails from a different background and embraces an individual approach to written composition, but all express with eloquence the stereotypes against which they have long felt compelled to fight. Most of them had not met before this discussion, but their probing exchanges reveal the power of coming together and connecting through collective contemplation of the challenges facing foreign-born women in the French literary landscape today.