Primary Sources
Gournay, M. (1594). The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne.
Gournay, M. (1622). The Equality of Men and Women.
Gournay, M. (1625). The Shadow of Mademoiselle de Gournay.
Gournay, M. (1626). The Ladies’ Complaint.
Gournay, M. (1641). Les avis, ou les Présens de la Demoiselle de Gournay. Paris.
Gournay, M. (1998). Preface to the Essays of Michel de Montaigne by His Adoptive Daughter, Marie Le Jars de Gournay. Renaissance Tapes.
Gournay, M. (2002). Apology for the Women Writing and Other Works (1221076424 908512397 R. Hillman, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gournay, M. (2018). Adieu, de l’Ame Du Roy de France Et de Navarre Henry Le Grand La Royne: Avec, La Defence Des Peres Jesuistes. Forgotten Books.
Secondary Sources
Bauschatz, C. M. (1990). “L’horreur de mon exemple” in Marie de Gournay’s Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne (1594). The Johns Hopkins University Press, 97-105.
Cathleen Bauschatz discusses Gournay’s novel Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne and the dynamics between the writer and readers, specifically the difference between male and female readers. She talks about Gournay’s thoughts on the harm of not letting women read, such as their inability to be able to learn to avoid negative situations, as reading about them would help women to avoid them. Her novel is a story of seduction and betrayal to which men readers will take as entertaining and women readers will use as a lesson. Without the ability to do this, Gournay exemplifies, women will not be able to inspire critical thinking from negative examples. Instead, reading inspires reflection, which allows for both men and women to live more virtuous lives.
Deslauriers, M. (2008). One Soul in Two Bodies: Marie de Gournay and Montaigne. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 13(2).
Marguerite Deslauriers argues that Gournay used her idolized philosopher, Michel de Montaigne’s, ideas to develop her feminist ideas. Specifically, Gournay maintains that she was “one” with Montaigne, even after his death, by arguing that the dead can live on because of true friendships that occur when two souls meld. The author then goes on to address how this transfers into Gournay’s beliefs that men and women are “one” because they share a single, rational, human soul.
Lynn, W., & Freeman, R. (2007). ‘In Her Own Fashion’: Marie de Gournay and the Fabrication of the Writer’s Persona (Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, 2007). Virtues and Vices: Puncture de moeurs. Arizona: The University of Arizona.
The authors acknowledge the criticism that Gournay has received since the 16th century and their goal in their work is to analyze the fabrication of her public persona. Specifically in their section Virtues and Vices: Puncture de moeurs, they discuss Gournay’s idea that virtue and vice must coexist and in the process, she is open about her own faults, but maintains that she cannot honestly appreciate herself if she only addresses these and not her vices. Further, the authors convey that Gournay elaborates on intellectual abilities to prove her worth and, in this way, she also advocates that an individual’s education is the determining factor in intellectual development, instead of wealth or sex.
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introduction
biography
philosophical position
comparison with Sor Juana
closing argument
bibliography