Women’s History, Edited by Marie Ruiz (Univ. Paris Diderot, LARCA) and Mélanie Grué (Univ. Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, IMAGER); Special issue (Summer 2017)

Abstracts by June 1, 2016

Historians face a difficult task when dealing with historical documents, testimonials revealing or concealing „truth.“ As objects of enquiry, documents, sometimes limited in what they can disclose, have very often resisted historians‘ intentions to show „reality.“ This is even more vivid in the context of women’s history, a subjected topic that has undergone invisibility through male domination. In Policing Truth (1994), Leigh Gilmore argues that the notion of truth is intertwined with the notion of gender: man is a judge who has historically defined the rules and standards of truth in order to perpetuate patriarchal authority and male privilege. Barbara Kanner’s Women in English Social History, 1800-1914: A Guide to Research (1988) has been a major contribution to unveiling the existence of documents informing the participation of women in all fields of British history.

This special issue of Women’s History intends to address the subjectivity of historical documents, and the place left to women in the course of history. It gives a special place to historical evidence and iconic documents revealing women’s resistance to patriarchal rule, whether in history, photography, film, or artistic representations. This volume focuses on the nature of historical documentation and its gender bias. It intends to address the question of subjectivity in women’s history. Read more and source … (Web)