John - I am enjoying this series. As the father of a teenage daughter I am very interested in ensuring she has every opportunity that my college age son has. I have also really enjoyed reading Kate Jones newsletter which focuses on women authors. To make any meaningful change we must understand our history so we don't repeat those mistakes.
Your movement from Austen to de Staël highlights two thoughts for me. Latterly, de Staël's criticisms of the Revolution's limited purview, not including women, reminds me of how in our own era, post-Civil Rights, Counterculture, feminist and LBGTQ social revolutions, so to speak, produced similar critiques, from groups continuously still not fully considered -- women still, women of color, queer, trans. But first, the contrast between de Staël's connectedness, nonetheless, to intellectual elites and Austen's domesticated life far from centers of cultural power reminds that change has truly occurred only when those without ready access to cultural influence, who are not exceptions, as was de Staël, actually have freedom to become exceptional, as Austen made herself.
Thanks, Jay. And yes, that’s so true about “access.” And, of course, Austen’s influence really came to fruition after her death—because of that lack of access, whereas de Staël was influential in her own time.
John - I am enjoying this series. As the father of a teenage daughter I am very interested in ensuring she has every opportunity that my college age son has. I have also really enjoyed reading Kate Jones newsletter which focuses on women authors. To make any meaningful change we must understand our history so we don't repeat those mistakes.
Thanks, Matthew! And I'll have to check out that newsletter.
Should have included a link the first time around.
https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/?utm_source=notification&utm_content=writes
Your movement from Austen to de Staël highlights two thoughts for me. Latterly, de Staël's criticisms of the Revolution's limited purview, not including women, reminds me of how in our own era, post-Civil Rights, Counterculture, feminist and LBGTQ social revolutions, so to speak, produced similar critiques, from groups continuously still not fully considered -- women still, women of color, queer, trans. But first, the contrast between de Staël's connectedness, nonetheless, to intellectual elites and Austen's domesticated life far from centers of cultural power reminds that change has truly occurred only when those without ready access to cultural influence, who are not exceptions, as was de Staël, actually have freedom to become exceptional, as Austen made herself.
Thanks, Jay. And yes, that’s so true about “access.” And, of course, Austen’s influence really came to fruition after her death—because of that lack of access, whereas de Staël was influential in her own time.
Thanks for bringing awareness to this fascinating figure. I’m off to learn more about her!