Marie Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen

Marie-Antoinette is one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in all of French history. This volume explores the many struggles by various individuals and groups to put right Marie's identity, and it simultaneously links these struggles to larger destabilizations in social, political and gender systems in France.

Looking at how Marie was represented in politics, art, literature and journalism, the contributors to this volume reveal how crucial political and cultural contexts were enacted "on the body of the queen" and on the complex identity of Marie. Taken together, these essays suggest that it is precisely because she came to represent the contradictions in the social, political and gender systems of her era, that Marie remains such an important historical figure.

Dena Goodman is Professor of History and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan. Her publications include The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the FrenchEnlightenment (1994) and Going Public: Women andPublishing in Early Modern France, which she co-edited (1995).