The paradoxes of religion in Gabrielle Suchon

Veronique Desnain*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Gabrielle Suchon’s reliance on religious texts and authorities to support and legitimise the arguments she makes in her two texts Traité de la Morale et de la Politique (1693) and Du Célibat volontaire (1700) has sometimes been perceived as running contrary to its defence of female freedom. Suchon’s use of religious texts will be examined here as a corner stone of her attack on male hegemony and crucial to her argument, which rests in large part on the distinction between divine law and social customs. The article will focus specifically on how Suchon uses the paradoxes and contradictions found in her extensive corpus of references to advance the notion that the subjugation of women is a political strategy to support male power rather than the result of a natural and divinely ordained hierarchy of genders.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)70-87
JournalEarly Modern French Studies
Volume43
Issue number1
Early online date19 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 19 Jul 2021

Keywords

  • Suchon
  • religion
  • gender
  • philosophy
  • celibacy
  • female advocacy
  • freedom
  • education vocation
  • vocation

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