Bienvenue, Welcome, to the 19th Century Women Writers in the Francophone World database, by Drs. Bénédicte Monicat and Morgane Haesen.
This website was originally created as a Digital Companion to Dr. Monicat’s book, Écrits de femmes et livres d’instruction au XIXe siècle : Aux frontières des savoirs. This first book-length analysis of women’s instructional writings in Nineteenth-Century France includes over two hundred authors, mostly non-canonical, and primary sources ranging from reading manuals to books on physics, botany, history, etc. This website was conceived to expand the depth and breadth of Dr. Monicat’s research to include additional information on these women writers’ bio-bibliographical data, links to digitized texts, and illustrations.
In the spirit of collaboration and bringing to light the trove of 19th century women writers who remain largely non-canonical and understudied, we welcome researchers’ own additions. Indeed, as Dr. Monicat put it in the conclusion of her book, “[…] il est nécessaire de faire surgir les femmes auteurs de livres d’instruction […]” – and other genres of writing, such as life writings, travel narratives, press articles, poetry, etc. This database, once fully developed, will provide researchers with diverse points of entry for finding and accessing primary sources via hyperlinked access points that categorize entries according to shared subject headings, genre, time period, literary prizes, etc. In addition to promoting access, this approach will lend itself to fostering new research perspectives (for instance, on publishing houses, on specific periods/time-lines, on illustrations, on literary prizes, on school curricula, etc.). In turn, the database will become a tool that enables scholars to articulate new research questions while also providing the greater public access to this critical history.
Dr. Bénédicte Monicat passed away unexpectedly in February 2025. Her Penn State, NCFS, WIF, and many other families and colleagues mourn the loss. She is missed by many. Commemorative events will be held at the NCFS conference in Reno in October 2025.
Thanks to the support of the Women in French Association, Dr. Morgane Haesen will complete the website structure in the summer of 2025, after which colleagues will be invited to contribute their own additions. Please reach out on our Contact page to signal your interest in contributing to this database.
