The role of women in the formation of gallant aesthetics.

Abstract

The object of the study is radical changes in gender relations in France in the first half of the XVII century, increasing the social role of women.The process of turning the knightly estate into a courtier against the background of the strengthening of the royal court leads to the fact that men leave the historically habitual and habitual ideal of knightly valor, entering the space of salons and the court. In this space, they are forced to comprehend the art of secular communication that is new to them and the art of liking the participants of this communication. That art, which, according to contemporaries, was perfectly mastered by women. Through language, education, literature, women take part in the birth and establishment of a public space built around new gender norms, a new practice of fiction. The recognition of a woman in the moralistic literature of the first half of the XVII century as equal to a man in dignity and nobility makes her an equal participant in secular communication. Women's authority eventually begins to determine the direction of criticism, women act as arbiters of good taste in literature and art. At this time, a modern view of the relationship between the sexes is being formed. All these phenomena are characteristic of European culture as a whole and largely determine the modern European mentality. The analysis of the historical prerequisites for the increase in social activity and the role of women is extremely important and relevant both for understanding many historical realities, including the formation of the European gender tradition, and for studying the influence of these processes on the formation of new aesthetic ideals. Gallant aesthetics develops with the participation and under the influence of women, since gallant culture is a culture permeated with the idea of love.