The Liberation of Paris, also referred to as the Liberation of France, took place during World War II from the 19th of August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German army on the 25th of August. The Liberation began with an uprising by the French Resistance against the German troops. The capital of France had been governed by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice in June 1940, when the German Army occupied northern and westernmost France, and when the puppet regime of Vichy France was established in the town of Vichy in central France.
Nonetheless, it is difficult to define exactly when the Liberation took place because the term ‘Liberation’ has a multitude of meanings: the military operations of the Allied forces which signalled the end of the German occupation of France, the end of the war in Europe and in the World, the return of prisoners of war, deportees and others who had been absent from France during that period, and their reintegration into French society, the re-establishment of a democratic form of government, that not only marked the end of the Vichy regime but also the end of the provisional government of Charles de Gaulle. Therefore it could be argued that the years of the Liberation lasted until the beginning of 1947, when the new Fourth Republic was finally put in place.
It was after this period of Liberation that Charles de Gaulle set about creating a Resistance Myth that covered up the extensive collaboration that had taken place in France; later to be uncovered with the hugely publicised trial of Maurice Papon and the publication of American historian, Robert Paxton’s book that revealed the extent of active collaboration that the Vichy regime was guilty of during the Holoc...
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... place after 1945 happened as part of a long and gradual process. Feminist literature didn’t really take off until after the events of May 1968, as Duchen implies and although Gregory and Tidd present improvements, there were still setbacks and permanent inequalities between the sexes.
Works Cited
De Beauvoir, S. (1949). Le Deuxième Sexe. Paris: Editions Gallimard.
Duchen, C. (1994). Women's Rights and Women's Lives in France, 1944-1968. Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
Gregory, A., Tidd, Ursula. (2000). Women in Contemporary France. Oxford, GBR: Berg Publishers.
Humbert, E. (2012). Lucie Aubrac: A Resistance Heroine from Page to Screen. Literature Film Quarterly, 40(2), 109.
Paxton, R. (2001) Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order 1940-1944. Columbia University Press, 2nd revised edition.
Rossiter, M. (1986). Women in the Resistance. New York, USA: Praeger.
To summarize the book into a few paragraphs doesn't due it the justice it deserves. The beginning details of the French and Ind...
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
It amazes me how a few decades ago can seem like a whole different world. A course of time can impact our lives more than we know it. In the article, A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Boumgoidnei and Amy Richntds, both of these authors created this piece to inform their audience that although women have gained more rights over time, there was still more progress to be made. These authors gave many examples of how life for women had been, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the laws women had to break for equality.
During the early 20th century, women were highly subject to discrimination and lack of rights in such settings, being determined as guilty without fair trial (Grayzel, Susan R.2002). Brion acknowledges this as due to her inferiority and inability to vote within French society, and subjects heavily to the concept of exclusion of women in the decision making process in France. This exclusion is something she believes to be one of the main causes for the severe suffering being expereinced by the French, and many other countries across Europe at that current point of time. She illustrates that if women were given the right to vote, such as men, then the likelihood of France participating in the Great war would have been lessened, as feminism would have prevailed and used other means - “moral strength and intellectual values” rather than the violence and suffering that accompanied the conflict and the beast-like nature of men. Many other feminists across Europe highlighted a similar point during this time, illustrating the lack of compensation and the extent of the wars consequences on all of the nations citizens, half of which had had no input into its occurrence due to their lack of political rights. (Grayzel, Susan R.2002) Brion also mentions this particular point, but does do by forcing her target audience to question their logic
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Women's Studies. 12 (1986): 113-128.
Baker, Charles A. “Review: Two Views of Vichy France, ” The French Review, Vol.51, No. 5, American Association of Teachers of French, (April 1978), pp. 763-764
1789--Fall of the Bastille--a state prison--symbol of royal authority, oppression and privilege; July 14 even today is a national holiday in France "Bastille Day."
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'" Women's Studies 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
The Declaration declares that all French citizens must be guaranteed their natural born rights of “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” In the Declaration, it disputes that there is a need for law that protects the citizens of Fra...
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Women's Studies. 12 (1986): 113-128.
When Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris in 1986, the wreath of obituaries almost universally spoke of her as the 'mother' of contemporary feminism and its major twentieth century theoretician. De Beauvoir, it was implied as much as stated, was the mother-figure to generations of women, a symbol of all that they could be, and a powerful demonstration of a life of freedom and autonomy (Evans 1).
Peterson-Bennett, Barbara. "Metternich, Klemens Wenzel Lothar Fürst (1773-1859)." The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006. 631-34. Print.
The most concrete results of the French Revolution were probably achieved in 1789-91, when land was freed from customary burdens and the old corporate society was destroyed. The great reforms of 1789-91 nevertheless established an enduring administrative and legal system, and much of the revolutionaries' work in humanizing the law itself was subsequently incorporated in the Napoleonic Code. Politically, the revolution was more significant than successful. Since 1789 the French government has been either parliamentary and constitutional or based on the plebiscitary system that Napoleon inherited and developed. The Revolution nevertheless freed the state from the trammels of its medieval past, releasing such unprecedented power that the revolutionaries could defy, and Napoleon conquer, the rest of Europe. Moreover, that power acknowledged no restraint: in 1793 unity was imposed on the nation by the Terror. Europe and the world have ever since been learning what infringements of liberty can issue from the concepts of national sovereignty and the will of the people.
Although by the 1960s women were responsible for one-third of the work force, despite the propaganda surrounding the movement women were still urged to “go back home.” However the movement continued to burn on, and was redeveloping a new attitude by the 1970s. The movement was headed by a new generation that was younger and more educated in politics and social actions. These young women not only challenged the gender role expectations, but drove the feminist agenda that pursued to free women from oppression and male authority and redistribute power and social good among the sexes (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000). In just a few decades, the Women’s Liberation Movement has changed typical gender roles that once were never challenged or questioned.