To nurse and to die - Rousseau and the test of fiction

Journal/Book: Eur J Womens Stud. 1997; 4: 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Sage Publications Inc. 421.

Abstract: This article explores the theme of breast-feeding in three novels following Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile. Whereas Rousseau's teachings advocated a return to maternal breast-feeding, in opposition to the customary placement of infants with wet-nurses, historians have found out that the philosopher's admonitions were not heard in France as they were in the rest of Europe. The three stories studied in this article - Diderot's 'On the Inconsistency of Public Opinion' (1772), Madame de Charriere's Letters of Mistress Henley to her Friend (1784) and Madame de Stael's Delphine (1802) - all present circumstances where breast-feeding has dramatic and negative consequences for the family involved. This article shows that novelists explored the anxiety experienced by French people about the drastic changes to their way of life brought about by the adoption of maternal breast-feeding.

Note: Article Lastinger V, W Virginia Univ, Morgantown,WV 26506 USA

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