History: three books that give women the place they deserve

A comic

The result of an impressive synthesis work – more than seven versions of the scenario were produced before arriving at the one that readers will have in their hands – this The history of France seen from a female perspective (Casterman) is an amazing gem.

Brought to you by Sandrine Mirza, author of children’s books (and historian by training) to whom we are in particular indebted My first mythology in comics (Casterman jeunesse, 2021) and the designer Blanche Sabbah, whose super Myths and girls (Dargaud, 2022), this comic – the first of its kind! – gives women back the place they deserve in the history of France.

“From prehistory, which as we know inaugurated patriarchal domination, to the present day in which the #Metoo movement has just liberated the voices of the victims of male violence, this comic tells a long, captivating, moving and surprising story of the female population” summarizes the historian Yannick Ripa in the preface to the work. The album not only strives to highlight those who have passed on to posterity (although their names are also regularly overlooked…): Eleanor of Aquitaine, Catherine de Medici, Christine de Pizan, Madame de La Fayette, Emilie du Chatelet, Louise Michel, Colette, Simone de Beauvoir… – but also traces the daily life of generations of anonymous people. Immersing ourselves in the condition and ordinary life of women in recent centuries.

Designed for a young audience, aged 11 and over, this comic is also perfectly suited to adults who will appreciate it. Aesthetics, humour, panache, pedagogy…: it’s all there! So much so that it’s already part of our list of books to give as Christmas gifts.

*History of the women of France, by Sandrine Mirza and Blanche Sabbah, Casterman, 144 pages, €17.95.

A cabinet of curiosities

A metal corset, a bidet, a Sappho papyrus, a Phrygian cap, Kim Kardashian’s engagement ring, a beater, a leaflet of the resistance to the Nazi occupation, “La Fontaine” by Marcel Duchamp…: at first sight , these objects appear to have little in common. However, each one tells a story in its own way of which the woman is the subject.

Let’s discover the stories in the surprising work of the Franco-German journalist Annabelle Hirsch, 100 objects tell a story of women (The arenas). A true cabinet of curiosities, this fascinating book is worth a visit as it takes us on an epic journey as singular as it is moving, from the Neolithic to the present day.

The author, tireless” archaeologist of the feminine » – as the writer Leïla Slimani describes it at the beginning of this book which is the preface – transforms famous and everyday objects into witnesses, until then silent, of cross-sections of the history of female emancipation, here revealed and awakened. Thus giving women back their voice and the place they deserve! The diversity of the proposed passages, which fall in particular into the artistic, domestic, literary, intimate or technical sphere, like the ingenious vitality of the author’s graceful pen, make the reading of this work particularly fluid and accessible.

Above all because the format allows you to choose how many small stories you want, alternating periods, stopping and then resuming them easily.

*100 objects tell a story of women, by Annabelle Hirsch, translated from German by Corinna Gepner, Les Arènes, 420 pages, €22.90.

A female Odyssey

By Murielle Szac, the author of this incredible Women’s Odyssey – to be released on October 13th on L’Iconoclaste -, we already knew the work he did as director of the series “Quelli che dice no”. (A series for children so brilliant that it deserves a small digression: launched by Actes Sud more than 15 years ago, it brings together dozens of novels about historical figures who had the courage, one day, to rebel against the name of justice or freedom. be discovered urgently!).

The children’s author here tries her hand at writing for adults for the first time, with a delightfully educational and accessible work, which offers a feminist rereading of the ancient myths that have contributed so much to shaping our collective imagination. Far from classical representations, populated by powerful gods and heroes facing weak creatures, the universe that opens up to us is full of complex, sometimes powerful women, carried by a breath of freedom.

His pen thus rehabilitates Athena above all who, in the guise of a “daddy’s girl” – in this case Zeus – – ” upsets hierarchies and violates all paternal prohibitions” – ; Aphrodite, victim of patriarchy who escapes a forced union; Artemis the rebel, presented as an ancestor of ecofeminism who does not accept either submitting to man or taming nature; or even Penelope, a nunuca who should spend her life waiting for the return of Ulysses, here represented as indispensable as she is powerful.

Not only does this work exude thought-provoking erudition – Murielle Szac has mastered this subject on which she has already written extensively – but its form is so joyful and lively, that we would believe we were immersing ourselves in strangely familiar tales as reporting all the variations of them. of what it means to be a woman.

*The Women’s Odyssey by Murielle Szac, The Iconoclast, 304 pages, €20.9. (out October 12)