ABSTRACT
Studies of French literature in the eighteenth century provide paradoxical testimony to the makings of first-wave feminism. Masculine forms of literary production that drew on women’s legal battles, including Les Lettres de Cachet, Les Memories Judiciaries, and Les Causes Célèbres, provide striking evidence that women of all classes had very limited agency of expression. While the rise of epistolarity and the novel provided a way for some educated women to express themselves through their writing, the then all-male French Academy was dictating and defining the very parameters of French literary acceptability and tradition. Through a deep reading of the factum, or legal brief, the connection between women’s agency and writing becomes clear. With these authentic historical materials, we can continue to redefine literary studies and examine the impact of the legal brief in its proper context.
