In the Eye of the Storm: Women and Polemics in the Public Space

Abstract

This chapter focuses on an influential generation of protagonists — Benoîte Groult, Françoise Parturier and Françoise Giroud — whose work anticipated the feminist revolution following the events of May ’68. Using a variety of media, these women all interacted in the public sphere in a high-profile series of interventions. All three women, as journalists, used the press and magazines as one of their modes of intervention; they also encompassed a range of written forms including fiction, autobiography and the polemical open letter. After considering Groult’s parcours and fictional oeuvre, attention turns to Françoise Parturier, analysing her two arresting open letters. The chapter concludes by examining Giroud’s career as journalist and politician and her interaction with Groult and Parturier. As with all the intellectuals studied in this book, the three protagonists in focus here are universalists in a Beauvoirian tradition, rejecting any association with ‘difference feminism’ and écriture féminine. All three were part of Beauvoir’s generation and Groult and Parturier shared her bourgeois background, which Giroud did not: Parturier’s father was a cardiologist who researched the works of writer Prosper Mérimée whereas Groult’s parents were artists with links to an elite circle in decorative arts and fashion. Both Groult and Parturier began their careers as teachers before concentrating full time on their writing.