“Author”: history of a highly political word

The question of more inclusive writing is often the subject of controversy. The debates therefore lead to the idea that the use of words is political. But how to explain this ideological dimension?

“Author”: history of a controversial word

In Tale of the author, from the Latin era to the present day, Aurore Evain traces the history of this name based on a corpus of over 150 occurrences, showing its link with women’s access to public life.

In Latin, the word “autrix” has many occurrences since the first centuries of Christianity, to designate biblical female figures.

But, in the 9th century, the debate arose because the Latin grammarians legislated on the language and recorded the first rules that excluded the feminine. The masculine “auctor” is therefore preferred, but common usage favors “autrix” for female writers. Between X and XII^And century, the word keeps appearing. During the Renaissance the female “author” spread and spread through the pen of many women and female writers.

The Great Century: heart of the debate around the feminine

During the Grand Siècle, the opposition to the feminine materializes. As writer status became institutionalized, the French Academy banned this term after a quarrel between Marie de Gournay and Guez de Balzac.

During the XVIII^Andcentury the occurrences of authorship decrease. But, after the revolution, the debate intensified and became politicized. Indeed, for feminists, the word author represents social progress.

The 19th and 20th centuries saw the advent of authorship legitimacy

The 19^Andand the XX^And again you see the appearance of the word in common usage. Writers claim the use of this term as an image of the visibility of women artists.

In 1891, at the request of Marie-Louise Gagneur, the Academicians claimed that the author was one of the ” females pluck ears.

However, popular use of the word author intensified in the 19th and 19th centuries^And and the middle of the twentieth^And century. Feminists ask themselves this question, then Minister Yvette Roudy organizes the commission on the feminization of professions and finally opts for “an author”. In 1998, a second commission set up by Lionel Jospin proposed “author”, a Quebec neologism.

Today the word author is used… but remains controversial

Currently the term has been rehabilitated, although its use remains frowned upon by some institutions. In this sense, an entry was dedicated to the word in the 2003 edition of little Robert then from the dictionary Accept.

However, the history of the word author is marked by the action of women. Furthermore, the French Academy deliberately chose to oppose the feminization of names in the late 20th century. It is only in his 2019 report that he acknowledges its use, but prefers the neologism “author” which would be at the top of occurrences.

Language is political and can transform reality

The history of the word author shows that language is political. Thus, the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu insisted on the social effect of language and their balance of power. Language would therefore have a power that would categorize social relations through its “symbolic violence”.

According to linguist Cécile Canut, language can reinvent reality by using words that modify its symbolism. To change the world, we must go through a modification of language, and to transform the representations of reality linked to words, we must change society.

Demasculinize language rather than feminize it

In the feminist struggle, it may be necessary to demasculinize language. In fact, it is a question of reconnecting with French and its logic, since it was grammarians who designated the masculine gender as the most “noble” and masculinized the names of professions. So writes Eliane Viennot No, the masculine does not prevail over the feminine That ” the ”sexism of the French language” is not a question of the language itself, but of the interventions made on it since the seventeenth century by intellectuals and institutions that opposed gender equality “. This question of language therefore seems essential in the feminist struggle.