Fanny Raoul

Marie-Françoise Raoul, known as Fanny Raoul (born in Saint-Pol-de-Léon on December 19, 1771, and died in Paris on December 9, 1833) was a French feminist writer, journalist, philosopher and essayist.

Early life and education Little is known about the life of Marie-Françoise (nickname, "Fanny") Raoul. The editor of Raoul's essay, as well as the record of the Bibliothèque nationale de France indicate 1771 as the year of her birth, while the biographical dictionary of Joseph-Marie Quérard, indicates 20 December 1779.

Her mother, daughter of the organist of Saint-Pol-de-Léon, died while giving birth to Fanny. Her father, Claude-René Raoul, was first a notary, then a prosecutor of the bishopric, the first alderman of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and finally, a commissioner of the court of Morlaix after the revolution. He gave his daughter a solid and open intellectual education, being her first reader and advisor.

Raoul moved to Paris where she frequented the salons of Thérésa Tallien, Juliette Récamier, and Germaine de Staël.

Career 1801-12

With the support of Constance de Salm, Raoul published in 1801. Influenced by the thinking of Claude Adrien Helvétius, and citing Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Raoul denounces the weight of opinion and prejudice. She pleads to obtain the full rights of a citizen and to work for more social justice. She fights with force the prejudices which oppress her sex. According to Briquet (1804), this work deserved to be better known; it was well written, the logic was pressing, and it contained healthy and new views. (The Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique) of her compatriot Pierre-Louis Ginguené praised the justness of Raoul's complaints6. This text was republished in 1989 at the initiative of Geneviève Fraisse (Côté-femmes éditions) and then in 2011, at "Le Passager clandestin", with a preface by Geneviève Fraisse and an article by Marie Desplechin. This text recalls the position of François Poullain de la Barre in his feminist writings, notably , written 150 years earlier. Raoul establishes the link between slavery of women and slavery of Blacks.

Then followed in 1813 the , a collection of various texts that she had kept for years. This work was controversial: she accused Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval, member of the Académie Française and director of the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, of plagiarism. She delivered a comparative study that was much debated and her fight was panned by journalists who nicknamed her the "Breton Amazon".

Publications

. Republished in 2011 with a preface by Geneviève Fraisse.