Ceding to Bucolic Temptation: Negotiating Fictional and Real Nature in Montpensier's Pastoral Republic

Abstract

As an author of pastoral literature and as a woman who became familiar with rural life during her years in exile at her country estate of Saint-Fargeau, Montpensier's writing and biography are connected to nature. This article examines how pastoral convention serves as a resource that allows Montpensier to envision a female-centered alternative to patriarchal court culture. Over the course of a year of correspondence with Françoise Bertaut de Motteville, Montpensier developed a project for a "pastoral republic" where marriage is forbidden, and women are free to pursue activities conventionally reserved for men.