[Mar 31] Authenticity and Audacity in the Writings of a French Chambermaid

Date: March 31, 2026 (Tue)

Time: 5:00pm–6:00pm

Venue: CRT-5.41, 5/F., Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Speaker: Prof. Barbara Abrams | Suffolk University

(PhD, MPhil Columbia, MA Cincinatti, BA Loyola)

Professor of French and Women's and Gender Studies and Chair for the Department of

Global Humanities: History, Language, Global Culture and Philosophy at Suffolk University

Speaker’s Bio: Prof. Abrams' work focuses on the French language, 18th-century French literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Global Women’s Fiction. Most recently, she published Forensic Storytelling and the Literary Roots of Early Modern Feminism: ReSisters, an archival research project which examines women cloistered against their will in 18th century France.

Abstract: This talk focuses on the writing of Marie Madeleine Bonafon, a chambermaid who served the Princess Montauban in mid-eighteenth-century France. Bonafon’s two surviving works are her novella Tanastès and the newly discovered novel, Confidences d’une jolie femme. This talk contextualizes Bonafon’s works and serves to underscore the importance of women’s written expression within the “Republic of Letters.” Bonafon’s writing can be seen as an act of dissent, of personal expression, and of social critique. Bonafon engaged in illegal writing as an effort to create a network to support her personal quest for recognition, and in service of her campaign to regain her personal freedom, as she later engaged in a wide correspondence from prison and then the convent in which she was sequestered.

All are welcome and registration is not required. For enquiries, please contact us at smlc@hku.hk