A01=Michele Cohen
Assistant Commissioners
Author_Michele Cohen
British Booby
Carte De Tendre
Category=JBCC
Category=JBSF2
Category=JPFN
Comely Behaviour
conversation
cultural identity studies
david
Du Bosc
eighteenth-century British society
english
English Gentleman
English Grammar
English Politeness
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Femmes Savantes
fordyce
gendered discourse
gentleman
Gentleman's Education
Gentleman’s Education
grand
Grand Tour
Held
Intellectual Acquirement
james
language and social hierarchy
masculinity and femininity in language
Mixed Conversation
Modern Languages
national character formation
Rough Diamonds
Seventeenth Century France
Sexed Mind
Smooth
sociolinguistics
Taunton Commissions
tongue
tour
True Politeness
Women's Conversation
Women's Tongue
womens
Women’s Conversation
Women’s Tongue
Young Men
Product details
- ISBN 9780415107365
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 10 Oct 1996
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The fashioning of English gentlemen in the eighteenth century was modelled on French practices of sociability and conversation. Michele Cohen shows how at the same time, the English constructed their cultural relations with the French as relations of seduction and desire. She argues that this produced anxiety on the part of the English over the effect of French practices on English masculinity and the virtue of English women.
By the end of the century, representing the French as an effeminate other was integral to the forging of English, masculine national identity. Michele Cohen examines the derogation of women and the French which accompanied the emergent 'masculine' English identity. While taciturnity became emblematic of the English gentleman's depth of mind and masculinity, sprightly conversation was seen as representing the shallow and inferior intellect of English women and the French of both sexes.
Michele Cohen also demonstrates how visible evidence of girls' verbal and language learning skills served only to construe the female mind as inferior. She argues that this perception still has currency today.
Michèle Cohen is Senior Lecturer in Languages and Linguistics at Richmond College, the American International University in London.
