Forensic Storytelling and the Literary Roots of Early Modern Feminism

Reviews / Votes

This important archival study opens up the rich possibilities of what Abrams' calls "forensic storytelling." This strategy of scholarly engagement is the author's new way into the story of early modern women's writing as a literature of resistance in 18th century France....Abrams brings together the history of 18th century French women and the literature by and about these women. As a French literary scholar of the 18th century, she offers a window into the time period. Through careful and insightful close readings, as well as elegant translations of the handwritten archival texts at the heart of this book, she makes these women's lives accessible to scholars and students alike. Not only does she supply readers with the French and the English translations of key texts from these women's case files, but we also see the text in a robust array of photographs of these very documents.

--Laura Levitt, Professor of Religion, Jewish Studies, and Gender, Temple University, USA