Gewohnheit und Erziehung. Zur Rolle von habitude und coutume bei Montaigne, Fénelon, Du Marsais und Madame de Maintenon

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the role of habit and custom in educational writings from 16th- to 18th-century France. Authors like Michel de Montaigne, François de Fénelon, César Chesneau Du Marsais and Madame de Maintenon highly recognize the importance of habit and custom (habitude, coutume) for the education of children. Yet, their opinions diverge with regard to the consequences and the educational functions of habit and custom. In a first step (section 2), I will outline some major positions on the relationship between coutume/habitude and education in Montaigne’s Essais (1580/88), Fénelon’s Traité sur l’éducation des filles (1687) and Du Marsais’ article on „Éducation“ in the Encyclopédie (1755). Two further sections are devoted to Madame de Maintenon and her Conversations (or Loisirs, posth. 1757): in section 3, I will focus on the importance of habit and habituation in Madame de Maintenon’s practical education of girls in the Maison royale de Saint Louis in Saint-Cyr, a school that Maintenon founded for poor noble girls. In this context, special attention will be paid to the performative and theatrical aspects of her educational concept. In the last part (section 4), I examine the role attributed to habit and custom in the text of the Conversations. I will argue that this role, which is strongly linked to the idea of toughening up girls for a future life as a good mère de famille, may be explained by both the historical context of the French 17th century and Madame de Maintenon’s personal experiences.