Gossip and the Public Sphere in Les Caquets de l'accouchee (1622)
Gossip and the Public Sphere in Les Caquets de l'accouchee (1622)
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《Les Caquets de laccouchee》中的八卦和公共领域 (1622)
DOI:
10.1093/fmls/cqu001
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发表时间:
2014
影响因子:
0.2
通讯作者:
Butterworth E
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Butterworth E
This essay focuses on the early seventeenth-century French pamphletsLes Caquets de l'accouchée, in order to explore the intersections between gossip, writing and politics. Using the conceit of a male scribe eavesdropping on women's conversation,Les Caquets de l'accouchéeexploit both the function and the style of gossip, while simultaneously seeking to distance male literary culture from the female oral culture to which the scribe is privy. Since the attempt is not wholly successful,Les Caquetssuggests a non-gendered concept of gossip that could contribute to an emerging public sphere of political debate. The essay engages with Habermas and his critics and argues thatLes Caquets de l'accouchéecould be seen as part of the pre-history of the public sphere, a pre-history that is rather less reasonable and more unruly than the Habermasian ideal. Gossip plays an important role here, andLes Caquets de l'accouchéeshow how it might have operated as public critique, despite attempts to silence it.