While they don`t seem like a big deal today, French salons were a revolutionary form of cultural innovation at the time. Not only did they provide platforms for men and women to discuss ideas without fear of persecution, but they also enabled the open exchange of political theory for all economic classes – who had not really interacted with each other before the salons were created. Some salons even focused on a topic or idea, similar to your local language club or post-school science program. 4. These salons not only served as centers of communication and channels for revolutionary ideas and feelings; They also gave French women the opportunity to access information and education. Historians tended to focus on individual salonnières, almost creating a “large” version of history parallel to the Whiggish male-dominated history identified by Herbert Butterfield. Until 1970, he created works that focused solely on individual stories, without analyzing the effects of the Salonnières` unique position. [33] The integral role that women played in salons, as salonnières, began to be the subject of a broader – and more serious – study in the latter parts of the 20th century with the advent of a distinctly feminist historiography. [34] According to Carolyn Lougee, the salons were characterized by “the very visible identification of women with the salons” and the fact that they played a positive public role in French society. [35] General texts on the Enlightenment, such as Daniel Roche`s La France aux Lumières, tend to agree that women dominated salons, but that their influence did not extend far beyond these places. [36] This practice can be compared to the broader formalities of Louis XIV`s small lever, where everyone stood.
Alley, which literally means “narrow street” or “alley”, refers to the space between a bed and the wall of a bedroom; It was often used to refer to the assemblies of the “Precious”, the intellectual and literary circles that formed around women in the first half of the 17th century. The first prestigious salon in France was the Hôtel de Rambouillet, not far from the Louvre Palace in Paris, which was run by his hostess, Catherine de Vivonne, born in Rome, Marquise de Rambouillet (1588-1665), from 1607 until her death. [3] [4] It set the rules of the salon`s etiquette, which were similar to the earlier codes of Italian chivalry. [4] A caveat: A quantitative approach to salon demography is of limited precision. Although we are able to give approximate figures for the total number of documented members of each salon and then the demographic groups, we cannot verify all the members of the salons as there will be many undocumented members or punctual participants who have not been registered in the historical archives. There are also issues of mood, tone, and etiquette that would dominate some people or groups over others, regardless of which groups are larger. When the neighboring France picked up the trend, they walked to Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. If you`ve ever heard of salons, you`ll probably notice the French salons of the 17th century. and the 18th century, in which philosophers, authors, musicians, poets and other interesting and educated people with points of view came together to talk about science, politics, literature and art and exchange ideas.
(The fairs were held throughout Europe, but were particularly popular and influential in France). So analog! Women escaped the restriction of not being able to publish their own works by choosing the topics of discussion in their living rooms. As the segregation of men and women was still widespread in the 18th century, women did not have the same opportunity to publish their ideas. However, in the living room, which provided an open platform for the discussion of ideas between men and women, the salonnières were responsible for setting the agenda for the topics of speech and leading the conversation. This powerful ability to control the content of discussions also determined which topics philosophers would focus on, and thus guided the direction of their work.12 In 2018, the book “Proust`s Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris” by Caroline Weber, a professor at Barnard College, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was the first in-depth study of the three Parisian salon hostesses, with which Proust created his highest fictional character. the Duchess of Guermantes. [8] Although the salons did not pave the way for women`s rights, they were a profound indicator of what a woman could represent in society: a powerful and impactful intellectual who was not afraid to say what she thought. Beyond what she could represent as an individual, the salons were proof that women could easily take on political and social roles in society without help (take that, Rousseau!).
Modern scholars such as Benedetta Craveri even argue that salons were originally “correct French,” which have been classified as a form of discourse distinct from “street jokes.” The fairs were a big step forward for women`s rights, as French thinkers were not too interested in women`s participation in politics – even if they could only participate indirectly. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, wrote that women divert men from their political duties. Philosophers, who were an integral part of the Enlightenment, who spread as widely as they did, relied on salonnières to give them an audience with people who had political influence to share their ideas. [28] Salonnières also played a governing role in the political debate between philosophers and more traditional thinkers, often preventing conversations from erupting into arguments in case of disagreement. Today, a salon is a store where you opt for an expensive haircut. In the France of the 18th century, salons were held that were held in private homes, usually by prominent women.
