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Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France (Hardcover, New Ed)
Loot Price: R1,173
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Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France (Hardcover, New Ed)
Series: Women and Gender in the Early Modern World
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Throughout the early modern period in France, surgeon men-midwives
were predominantly associated with sexual impropriety and physical
danger; yet over time they managed to change their image, and by
the eighteenth century were summoned to attend even the
uncomplicated deliveries of wealthy, urban clients. In this study,
Lianne McTavish explores how surgeons strove to transform the
perception of their midwifery practices, claiming to be experts who
embodied obstetrical authority instead of intruders in a
traditionally feminine domain. McTavish argues that early modern
French obstetrical treatises were sites of display participating in
both the production and contestation of authoritative knowledge of
childbirth. Though primarily written by surgeon men-midwives, the
texts were also produced by female midwives and male physicians.
McTavish's careful examination of these and other sources reveals
representations of male and female midwives as unstable and
divergent, undermining characterizations of the practice of
childbirth in early modern Europe as a gender war which men
ultimately won. She discovers that male practitioners did not
always disdain maternal values. In fact, the men regularly
identified themselves with qualities traditionally respected in
female midwives, including a bodily experience of childbirth. Her
findings suggest that men's entry into the lying-in chamber was a
complex negotiation involving their adaptation to the demands of
women. One of the great strengths of this study is its
investigation of the visual culture of childbirth. McTavish
emphasizes how authority in the birthing room was made visible to
others in facial expressions, gestures, and bodily display. For the
first time here, the vivid images in the treatises are analysed,
including author portraits and engravings of unborn figures.
McTavish reveals how these images contributed to arguments about
obstetrical authority instead of merely illustrating the written
content of the books. At the same time, her arguments move far
beyond the lying-in chamber, shedding light on the exchange of
visual information in early modern France, a period when identity
was largely determined by the precarious act of putting oneself on
display.
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