Friday, January 7, 2011: 2:50 PM
Tremont Room (Marriott Boston Copley Place)
Beginning in 1588, Michel de Montaigne and Marie de Gournay had a famous and unique mentoring relationship in learned Europe. The essayist was known and respected for having had an intellectual protégée and unofficial adopted daughter in the writer and feminist Marie de Gournay – and Gournay's own reputation in the republic of letters was enhanced through her status as Montaigne's fille d'alliance. However, with Montaigne's death in 1592, this alliance came to an end, and the intellectual family was finished. Or was it?
In this paper, I demonstrate that the famille d'alliance was far from over, and it fact it continued to expand throughout the seventeenth century. Eventually comprising mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and daughters, the famille d'alliance allowed mentors and scholars to choose each other for a lifelong kinship of the mind – and, in some cases, to regret having created the ties that bind. The use of these familial terms was specific, explicit, and repeated, thus the intent of intellectual kinship is quite clear. However, the conventions of the intellectual family were quite singular.
The famille d'alliance was identified and sustained by a profound and multivalent level of mentorship, and it was characterized by its complexity, warmth, and longevity. On the other hand, however, we find a surprising level of disagreement, and advice not taken. The construction of the intellectual family was simultaneously a form of networking, a type of mentorship, and a place for friendship. And, in the end, it created an alternative institution that was particularly useful for the formation of the early modern female scholar.
In this paper, I demonstrate that the famille d'alliance was far from over, and it fact it continued to expand throughout the seventeenth century. Eventually comprising mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and daughters, the famille d'alliance allowed mentors and scholars to choose each other for a lifelong kinship of the mind – and, in some cases, to regret having created the ties that bind. The use of these familial terms was specific, explicit, and repeated, thus the intent of intellectual kinship is quite clear. However, the conventions of the intellectual family were quite singular.
The famille d'alliance was identified and sustained by a profound and multivalent level of mentorship, and it was characterized by its complexity, warmth, and longevity. On the other hand, however, we find a surprising level of disagreement, and advice not taken. The construction of the intellectual family was simultaneously a form of networking, a type of mentorship, and a place for friendship. And, in the end, it created an alternative institution that was particularly useful for the formation of the early modern female scholar.