The Last Libertines: The Erotico-Sentimental Genre or the Birth of Women’s Expression of Sexuality at the End of the 18th Century

This project, at the intersection between literature, history, sociology, gender, and queer studies, based in archival works in European libraries, unearths texts and discourses on gender and sexuality in France at the turn of the 19th century. The Libertine novel is considered one of the most popular literary genres in France during the 18th century. Yet, where women are everywhere as characters, they are nowhere to be found as authors. This project wishes to shed light on authors who have been purposefully forgotten from literary history (Suzanne Giroust de Morency, Elizabeth Guénard, Félicité de Choiseul-Meuse), who emancipated their expression on sexuality from the libertine novel and created a genre of their own.