La question du genre étant plus que jamais d'actualité, il n'est pas inutile de connaître les grandes figures qui marquèrent la naissance du féminisme. Destiné à un public français non spécialisé, l'ouvrage Mary Wollstonecraft : aux origines du féminisme politique et social en Angleterre offre une synthèse de la pensée de celle que l'on considère à juste titre comme la « mère du féminisme anglo-saxon » et propose des extraits traduits de ses oeuvres. D'une modernité stupéfiante, les analyses de Wollstonecraft montrent qu'elle fut visionnaire par ses idées autant que par sa méthode, qui consiste à déconstruire les représentations de la féminité qui prévalaient alors afin de dénaturaliser les constructions idéologiques. Prélude indispensable à toute réforme sociale, ce travail de déconstruction est libération des esprits, « déploiement de l'imagination » qui, seul, conduit à la liberté.

Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - Reading time of the complete text: about 5 hours - Reading time of the summarized text: 21 minutes "Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" is a book by Mary Wollstonecraft, which is based on her journal and letters to her lover, Gilbert Imlay. The book reflects her anger and melancholy over his repeated betrayals. Wollstonecraft values subjective experience, particularly in relation to nature, champions the liberation and education of women, and illustrates the detrimental effects of commerce on society. The book initially inspired readers to travel to Scandinavia but failed to retain its popularity after the publication of Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1798. Wollstonecraft's journey to Scandinavia was fraught with peril, and she tried to commit suicide twice. The book frequently returns to the topic of death and has been described as a suicide note addressed to Imlay. The book consists of twenty-five letters that address an extensive range of contentious political topics, such as prison reform, land rights, and divorce laws, as well as less controversial subjects, such as gardening, salt works, and sublime vistas. Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley, was heavily influenced by the book.

Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - Reading time of the complete text: about 4 hours - Reading time of the summarized text: 14 minutes

One of the earliest works of feminist philosophy, `A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' argues that women should receive a rational education. A response to the educational and political theorists of the 18th century at the time, Wollstonecraft's essay invites readers today to peak behind the scenes at the early fight for rights for women. Whilst the term `feminist' did not emerge until years after the publication - and death of Wollstonecraft - `A Vindication' remains today an influential step in the advocacy for women's education and equal social status. A must-read for fans of Helena Bonham Carter and Carey Mulligan in Netflix's acclaimed `Suffragette' film. The founding feminist philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Whilst her unconventional relationships attracted more attention that her writing at the time, Wollstonecraft is best known for `A Vindication of the Rights of Women'; a ground-breaking work arguing that women are not naturally inferior to men. Despite her posthumously published `Memoir' overshadowing her writing career for almost a century, Wollstonecraft remains today an influential figure in the advocacy for women's rights following the feminist movement at the turn of the 20th century. She died giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelly, the accomplished author of `Frankenstein'.

« Fortifiez et élevez l'esprit des femmes, et vous mettrez fin à leur obéissance aveugle. Il est temps d'opérer une révolution dans les moeurs féminines - temps de rendre aux femmes leur dignité perdue et de faire qu'elles travaillent, en tant que membres de l'espèce humaine, à réformer le monde en se réformant elles-mêmes. » Publié en 1792, ce texte incendiaire dynamite l'ordre social établi. Royauté, esclavage, propriété, mariage - qualifié de « prostitution légale » -, rien n'échappe à la critique implacable de Mary Wollstonecraft. Inspirée par la pensée des Lumières, cette contemporaine d'Olympe de Gouges dénonce les mythes qui maintiennent les femmes dans l'ignorance et la soumission et affirme avec force que la raison n'a pas de sexe.

« Fortifiez et élevez l'esprit des femmes, et vous mettrez fin à leur obéissance aveugle. Il est temps d'opérer une révolution dans les moeurs féminines - temps de rendre aux femmes leur dignité perdue et de faire qu'elles travaillent, en tant que membres de l'espèce humaine, à réformer le monde en se réformant elles-mêmes. » Publié en 1792, ce texte incendiaire dynamite l'ordre social établi. Royauté, esclavage, propriété, mariage - qualifié de « prostitution légale » -, rien n'échappe à la critique implacable de Mary Wollstonecraft. Inspirée par la pensée des Lumières, cette contemporaine d'Olympe de Gouges dénonce les mythes qui maintiennent les femmes dans l'ignorance et la soumission et affirme avec force que la raison n'a pas de sexe.

C'était au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle. De nombreuses femmes et de rares hommes donnaient alors de la plume et de la voix pour revendiquer les droits et l'émancipation des femmes. Le mot n'avait pas encore été créé, mais aujourd'hui c'est une évidence : elles et ils étaient féministes. Ce recueil vous offre les meilleures pages de trois d'entre eux. François Poullain de La Barre, dont les idées nourriront celles de Simone de Beauvoir, dénonce en précurseur les préjugés sexistes dans "De l'égalité des deux sexes" (1673). Mary Wollstonecraft, pionnière de la philosophie féministe, célébrée par Virginia Woolf et Emma Goldman, s'insurge contre les injonctions de la société patriarcale et affirme le rôle émancipatoire de l'éducation dans "Défense des droits de la femme" (1790). Et Olympe de Gouges, critique radicale du machisme révolutionnaire, invisibilisée pendant deux siècles, rappelle dans sa "Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne" (1791) que le principe d'égalité ne doit pas concerner que les hommes.

"J'espère que, quand on reverra la Constitution, les droits de la femme seront enfin comptés pour quelque chose et respectés comme ils doivent l'être, surtout quand il sera bien prouvé, comme cela ne peut manquer de l'être, que la raison exige que l'on fasse attention à leurs plaintes et réclame hautement justice pour une moitié de l'espèce." Directement inspiré par la pensée des Lumières, un texte puissant et original, par une figure majeure du féminisme anglo-saxon.

"J'espère que, quand on reverra la Constitution, les droits de la femme seront enfin comptés pour quelque chose et respectés comme ils doivent l'être, surtout quand il sera bien prouvé, comme cela ne peut manquer de l'être, que la raison exige que l'on fasse attention à leurs plaintes et réclame hautement justice pour une moitié de l'espèce." Directement inspiré par la pensée des Lumières, un texte puissant et original, par une figure majeure du féminisme anglo-saxon.

A feminist reflection on female conduct, `Thoughts on the Education of Daughters' offers advice on moral and intellect for young women and girls. First published by the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft in 1787, the self-help title invites readers today to peek behind the curtain at respectable - and what was considered then to be progressive - female behaviour. From child-rearing instructions to analytical thinking, Wollstonecraft adapted old genres to appeal to a new middle-class ethos, arguing that social and political life would greatly improve if women acquired valuable skills. Considered today the founding thoughts for Wollstonecraft's later work 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women,' `Thoughts' is a must-read for fans of Helena Bonham Carter and Carey Mulligan in Netflix's acclaimed `Suffragette' film. The founding feminist philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Whilst her unconventional relationships attracted more attention than her writing at the time, Wollstonecraft is best known for `A Vindication of the Rights of Women'; a ground-breaking work arguing that women are not naturally inferior to men. Despite her posthumously published `Memoir' overshadowing her writing career, Wollstonecraft remains today an influential figure in the advocacy for women's rights following the feminist movement at the turn of the 20th century. She died giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, the accomplished author of `Frankenstein'.

Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman is Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. It was published posthumously in 1798 by her husband, William Godwin. Maria revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband, and focuses on the societal rather than the individual "wrongs of woman". Publicised at the same time as Wollstonecraft's memoirs, both were considered scandalous. Not until the 20th century was the novel considered an important historical and feminist work.

Mary: A Fiction, published in 1788, is a tragic story that decries marriages not based on love. It can be considered an example of feminist fiction.Mary's parents are in a loveless marriage. As the second-born, female child, she is neglected; her education is self-directed from books, nature, and her own inclinations. Her inclinations, however, are towards genius and religion. Mary becomes the heiress of her parents' fortune when her brother dies. To keep the family property together due to litigation, her parents marry her to a boy she has never met. After the ceremony, he goes to the Continent, and Mary devotes herself to her weak, sickly friend, Ann.She is disgusted with the thought of living with her husband - a weak, shallow man. Strong love for Ann, love for a "better" man, religion, and benevolence support Mary through a life on the run from conventional duty.

Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism. It was published in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), which was a defence of constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and the Church of England, and an attack on Wollstonecraft's friend, the Rev Richard Price. Hers was the first response in a pamphlet war that subsequently became known as the Revolution Controversy, in which Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1792) became the rallying cry for reformers and radicals. Wollstonecraft attacked not only monarchy and hereditary privilege but also the language that Burke used to defend and elevate it. Wollstonecraft was unique in her attack on Burke's gendered language. In her arguments for republican virtue, Wollstonecraft invokes an emerging middle-class ethos in opposition to what she views as the vice-ridden aristocratic code of manners. Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, she believed in progress and derides Burke for relying on tradition and custom. She argues for rationality. The Rights of Men was Wollstonecraft's first overtly political work, as well as her first feminist work; as Wollstonecraft scholar Claudia L.Johnson contends, "it seems that in the act of writing the later portions of Rights of Men she discovered the subject that would preoccupy her for the rest of her career." It was this text that made her a well-known writer. (Note: For the sake of clarity in listening the author's extensive and informative footnotes have been omitted in this recording.) - Summary by David Wales

Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism. It was published in response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), which was a defence of constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and the Church of England, and an attack on Wollstonecraft's friend, the Rev Richard Price. Hers was the first response in a pamphlet war that subsequently became known as the Revolution Controversy, in which Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1792) became the rallying cry for reformers and radicals. Wollstonecraft attacked not only monarchy and hereditary privilege but also the language that Burke used to defend and elevate it. Wollstonecraft was unique in her attack on Burke's gendered language. In her arguments for republican virtue, Wollstonecraft invokes an emerging middle-class ethos in opposition to what she views as the vice-ridden aristocratic code of manners. Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, she believed in progress and derides Burke for relying on tradition and custom. She argues for rationality. The Rights of Men was Wollstonecraft's first overtly political work, as well as her first feminist work; as Wollstonecraft scholar Claudia L.Johnson contends, "it seems that in the act of writing the later portions of Rights of Men she discovered the subject that would preoccupy her for the rest of her career." It was this text that made her a well-known writer.

Écrit en 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman reste le premier manifeste féministe de l’histoire. Mary Wollstonecraft y dénonce l’inégalité entre les sexes et plaide pour une éducation rationnelle des femmes, fondement de leur émancipation.