Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism
Louis XIV and the Port-Royal Nuns

£37.99

  • Date Published: February 2014
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781107674905

£ 37.99
Paperback

Add to cart Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism chronicles seventy years of Jansenist conflict and its complex intersection with power struggles between gallican bishops, Parlementaires, the Crown and the Pope. Daniella Kostroun focuses on the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs, whose community was disbanded by Louis XIV in 1709 as a threat to the state. Paradoxically, it was the nuns' adherence to their strict religious rule and the ideal of pious, innocent and politically disinterested behavior that allowed them to challenge absolutism effectively. Adopting methods from cultural studies, feminism and the Cambridge School of political thought, Kostroun examines how these nuns placed gender at the heart of the Jansenist challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of absolutism; they responded to royal persecution with a feminist defense of women's spiritual and rational equality and of the autonomy of the individual subject, thereby offering a bold challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of absolutism.

    • A dramatic narrative of power struggles between abbesses, the nuns they govern and their king, this history highlights the nuns' resistance to royal persecution and overturns the long-standing myth that they were passive victims
    • A social and cultural history of Bourbon absolutism from the perspective of women and religion
    • An investigation of the roots of modern feminism in the culture and institutions of old regime France
    Read more

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: February 2014
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781107674905
    • length: 288 pages
    • dimensions: 229 x 152 x 17 mm
    • weight: 0.43kg
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    Introduction
    1. Jansenism as a 'woman problem'
    2. Controversy and reform at Port Royal
    3. Jansenism's political turn, 1652–61
    4. The limits to obedience, 1661–4
    5. A feminist response to absolutism, 1664–9
    6. The unsettled peace, 1669–79
    7. A royal victory, 1679–1709
    Conclusion.

  • Author

    Daniella Kostroun, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
    Daniella Kostroun is currently Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the co-editor (with Lisa Vollendorf) of Women, Religion, and the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 and the author of 'A Formula for Disobedience: Jansenism, Gender and the Feminist Paradox', which appeared in the Journal of Modern History and won the 2004 Chester Penn Higby Prize from the Modern European History section of the American Historical Association.

Related Books

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×