Feminism in French Novels in the Late Renaissance-From the Perspective of Madeleine de Scudéry’s "The Story of Sapho"

Abstract

At the end of the Renaissance, Madeleine de Scudéry, an early exponent of historical fiction, infused French feminism with the spiritual qualities of the Renaissance with her novel The Story of Sapho. In this context, this essay takes it as the main subject and analyses the feminist qualities of this novel by examining the influence of the work over a period of nearly four centuries and comparing it specifically with the ideas of Gournay, one of the pioneers of French feminism, Rousseau, a revolutionary tutor, and Mona Ozouf, a contemporary historian. The study reveals that, unlike the feminism of Gournay's novel, Scudéry uses Sapho to reveal the birth of a new era of women with feminine virtue, feminine friendship and feminine love, and in this way to leave behind the old feminism of power struggles and gender differences. In the 18th century, this novel influenced Rousseau's Émile, in which the heroes and heroines are highly similar, and he continues to some extent the universalist spirit of The Story of Sapho, Rousseau's examination of the relationship between men and women has a similar concern to that of Scudéry, the pursuit of a harmonious society for both sexes. Finally, this novel echoes the uniqueness of French feminism as described by contemporary historian Mona Ozouf. In the long line of French feminism, Scudéry’s vision embodies the humanistic concerns of a feminism with a humanist core.