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The complex relation between gender and the representation of intellectual authority has deep roots in European history. 'Portraits and Poses' adopts a historical approach to shed new light on this topical subject. It addresses various modes and strategies by which learned women (authors, scientists, jurists, midwifes, painters, and others) sought to negotiate and legitimise their authority at the dawn of modern science in Early Modern and Enlightenment Europe (1600-1800). This volume explores the transnational dimensions of intellectual networks in France, Italy, Britain, the German states and the Low Countries. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from different spheres of professionalisation, it examines both individual and collective constructions of female intellectual authority through word and image. In its innovative combination of an interdisciplinary and transnational approach, this volume contributes to the growing literature on women and intellectual authority in the Early Modern Era and outlines contours for future research.

History of civilization --- intellectuals --- portraits --- women [female humans] --- anno 1600-1699 --- anno 1700-1799 --- Europe --- Women in art --- 82.081 --- 396 --- 82:396 --- Sex in art --- Authority in art --- Sex in the arts --- Sexuality in art --- 82:396 Literatuur en feminisme --- Literatuur en feminisme --- 396 Feminisme. Vrouwenbeweging. Vrouw en maatschappij --- Feminisme. Vrouwenbeweging. Vrouw en maatschappij --- 396 Feminism. Women's movement. Woman and society --- Feminism. Women's movement. Woman and society --- 82.081 Creatief schrijven --- Creatief schrijven --- Gender studies: women --- Women Writers;Early Modern Period;Authority Constructions;Visual and Textual (Self-)Representation;European Intellectual Culture --- vrouwengeschiedenis

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The thesis is interested in the newspaper of the XIXth century, named L’Aristarque. This periodical started to be published in 1822 in Brussel. The XIXth century is an important century for the written press and for the nationalism. Nevertheless, the creation of national identity is not in the center of attention. In fact, reading the Brussels newspaper shows that it deviates from the rule and that the creation of cultural identity(s) precedes. It’s therefore a question of analyzing to what extent the (proto)-Belgian culture elaborated in L'Aristarque. Another characteristic of this newspaper is the place granted to the readers. One of the major challenges of this work is to understand and evaluate the emergence of readership in this journal, especially through the letters included in this periodical. This thesis is subdivided in four chapters. The first two are more descriptive: we start with an insight of the political, cultural and linguistics situation of Belgium during the period between 1815 and 1830. The Napoleon’s defeat marks the end of the French domination and the begin of the Dutch one under the enlightened despot William I, who reigned on the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. This transfer of power had big consequences, especially on the literature. The second descriptive parts talk about the story of the Belgian newspaper of the XIXth century from a readership perspective. The two last chapters enter into the detailed analysis of the 56 numbers L’Aristarque. At first by means of three principles of newspaper (periodicity, actuality and particularly rubricity), the periodical is mapped. So, through a specific division into sections, the editor codifies and guides the reading of his newspaper. The sections that appear most often are also those that play an important role in the formation and emergence of readership. Finally, the thesis tackles the theme of the readership with the perspective of the construction of cultural identity. The readers and the editor developed cultural practices which influence and are influenced by the social and political life. Thus, L’Aristarque is constituted in a media space that testifies to the encounter between a technical device and cultural uses.

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The position of women in the academic sphere is a significant topic of debate that still pertains its relevance today. Especially the lack of space for women intellectuals to portray themselves as equal representatives of credible academic discourse remains a poignant problem. Only more recently, feminist critics have been starting to battle the unjust marginalisation of women writers and intellectuals. The early modern period has been essential to this development of individual claim to authority, which is why Early Modern women writers have been increasingly incorporated in feminist recovery projects. Although recent critical voices bring to the fore several textual and visual elements that indicate the women’s significance, they often limit themselves to a detailed account of the woman intellectual in question. This dissertation, however, aims to dissect the mechanisms that are involved with the construction of a public image as a woman intellectual through a comparative case study of two fascinating female intellectuals, namely Frances Burney and Anne Damer. In the exploration of the mechanisms of image building of both women, three specific research questions will be addressed through a triple structure. The personal evolution of the female intellectual in question in relation to the development of the female intellectual as a collective will be featured in exploration as to how they actively model images of the female intellectual. Burney’s creation process of her debut Evelina (1778) will be featured while in Damer’s case her initial sculpting career will be highlighted, including works such as Self-Portrait (1778) and Shock-Dog (1782). This will be followed by an analysis of the artist’s visual representations in analysis of how their visual portraits capture the period’s ideas on female intellectual authority, to end with a comparative view of both intellectuals as to how they constructed their female ‘self’ in challenge of the stereotypical (male) image of the intellectual. As a result, it has been discovered that there is such a great variety of manners with which women intellectuals manifested themselves in the public sphere that one may speak of a spectrum of self-fashioning mechanisms, ranging from systematic reconciliation of old views and newly emerging views of femininity represented by Burney to radical manifestations of a newfound femininity, embodied by Damer. This dissertation aims to recover the woman intellectual’s strategies of self-fashioning as a first attempt to highlight the true authoritative character of women intellectuals, as the long-forgotten accomplishments of the women intellectuals are foregrounded through the concept of the spectrum of self-fashioning.