2023/07/18 by Sandrine Bergès · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #Historical and Literary Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197558898.013.37
openalex publication_date 2023/07/18 · openalex created_date 2023/07/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract The works of French Revolution–era philosopher Germaine de Staël were popular in nineteenth-century America. Her conception of human perfectibility and her views about how women might contribute to it were particularly influential. This chapter traces her influence in the works of two American women: Louisa May Alcott and Anna Julia Cooper. Louisa May Alcott mentions Staël in a novel about women’s emancipation and influence on human progress, Work. Anna Julia Cooper, who cites Staël in A Voice from the South, embraces Staël’s account of human progress and her essentialism about womanhood but transforms these into a thesis on the necessity of women, Black men, and, especially, Black women’s participation in progress.