French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Cardi, G. Pruvost, Penser la violence des femmes
History, Politics and Society
Thinking Women's Violence
Coline CARDI, Geneviève PRUVOST
La Découverte, June 2017 (1st ed.: 2012)
ISBN: 9782707196422
Number of pages: 464
Dimensions: 125 * 190 mm
Digital ISBN: 9782707196927
Killers, ogresses, witches, pedophiles, hysterics, criminals, delinquents, furies, terrorists, suicide bombers, gang leaders, guillotine lickers, female soldiers, policewomen, she-devils, revolutionaries, harpies, rioters, incendiaries, viragos, female warriors, Amazons, boxers, génocidaires, husband-killers… What do all these figures have in common? To understand this, it is essential to exhume, denaturalize, historicize, and politicize women's violence. Such is the ambition of this book, which offers a multidisciplinary approach to a subject long ignored by the social sciences.
This unprecedented compendium, bringing together historical, anthropological, sociological, linguistic, and literary studies, reveals the extent to which women's violence lies at the heart of both political and epistemological issues. Thinking about women's violence means turning it into a genuine lever for rethinking sexual difference, violence, and, by extension, the social order.
Table of Contents
Preface,by Arlette Farge
General Introduction.
Thinking Women's Violence: Political and Epistemological Issues, by Coline Cardi and Geneviève Pruvost
I / Political Violence
Introduction, by Dominique Godineau
1. Women in Arms in the 16th Century, by NicoleDufournaud
2. Silenced Rioters? The Invisibilization of Women's Violence Through the Lens of Gender (Paris, 1775), by Clara Chevalier
3. Women's Violence During the Revolutionary Period: A Persistent Paradox, by Jean-Clément Martin
4. Communardes on the Barricades, by Quentin Deluermoz
5. Women of Lebanon and Palestine in Armed Struggle, by Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun
6. The "Terrorist", the "Female Militant", and the "Policewoman": Women's Involvement in Armed Violence in Peru, by Camille Boutron
7. Stigmatizing the Everyday Lives of Women Engaged in Armed Struggle in Peru and Northern Ireland: Transformation and Continuity in Social Relations, by Maritza Felices-Luna
8. The Politics of the Monkey in Rwanda. Genocidal Women and Speech, by Violaine Baraduc
II / The Private and the Political
Introduction. Matrilineal Societies and Women's Violence, by Marie-Élisabeth Handman
9. Symbolic Violence, Fantasized Violence: The Example of the "Scandalous" Violette Morris (1893-1944), by Marie-Josèphe Bonnet
10. Female Pedophilic Violence: An Unthinkable Social Figure, by Jean-Raphaël Bourge
11. Violence in Lesbian Relationships: A Literature Review, by Vanessa Watremez
12. Domestic Violence by Women in Mali, by Nehara Feldman
13. Women's Violence, Between Excess and Ruptures, by Clothilde Lebas
14. How Do They Speak About Violence? Narratives of Young Brazilian Girls Engaged in Criminal Activities, by Dominique Duprez
III / Institutional Treatment of Women's Violence
Introduction. Feminist Criminology and the Question of Women's Violence, by Colette Parent
15. The (Criminal) Woman Through the Scholar's Gaze in the 19th Century, by Martine Kaluszynski
16. "Bad Girls". Female Violence: Genealogy of a Moral Panic, by David Niget
17. Can a Woman Be Judged Violent? Gender Representations and the Conditions of Their Subversion in Immediate Appearance Trials, by Maxime Lelièvre and Thomas Léonard
18. Women's Violence During Armed Conflicts and the (Non-)Reaction of International Organizations, by Jane Freedman
IV / Figurations and Disfigurations of Violent Women
Introduction. Representing Women's Violence: Performance and Fantasy, by Éric Fassin
19. The Bathtub and the Knife: The Assassination of Marat (July 13, 1793), by Guillaume Mazeau
20. Mediatization: The Case of Action Directe Activists, by Fanny Bugnon
21. Women's Violence Captured by Words: "Witch", "Tricoteuse", "Vesuviant", "Pétroleuse": A Still-Living Continuum?, by Dominique Lagorgette
22. "Unsex me!" Literature and Women's Political Violence, by Raphaëlle Guidée
23. What Is a Woman? Evolution of the Female Character in the Terminator Series, by François-Xavier Molia
Afterword,by Rose-Marie Lagrave
General Bibliography
List of Acronyms.
The volume gathers historical, anthropological, sociological, linguistic, and literary studies to examine how women's violence has long been ignored by the social sciences. The collection addresses figures ranging from historical rebels and political militants to individuals involved in private or institutional conflicts, offering a multidisciplinary approach to a subject that intersects with both political and epistemological concerns.
Academic inquiry into gender roles has increasingly sought to re-examine subjects traditionally marginalized or overlooked by mainstream research traditions. Readers interested in feminist studies, sociology, and gender history may find the volume relevant to ongoing discussions surrounding sexual difference and social order. The texts collected here examine various contexts in which female agency and aggression emerge, spanning historical epochs, institutional frameworks, and cultural representations.