Assistant Professor Nathalie Hester spoke on Wednesday afternoon to a group about women's travel writing in 17th-century France.
The lecture revolved around the text "Travels in Spain," the first published travel account of a French woman.
Hester spoke to the group of more than 15 people, many from the romance languages department, about the publication and its author, an aristocratic French woman named Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy. The text was published in 1691, and is composed of 15 letters and the travel itinerary from South France to Spain.
During the lecture, Hester showed how the text was a reflection of the slowly emerging empowerment that began to circulate among some French women during the 17th century. Hester explained how in the same century that the text was written, there were new emerging trends, certain French women who began to get out of the house and travel more and write autobiographies of their experiences.
"Women were not traveling as much as men and women also did not have access to publication," Hester said.
Hester also said when French women started to publish, they often would not put their names on the publication.
"It was thought that an aristocratic lady shouldn't be putting her name on things" Hester said. "It was considered inappropriate."
The lecture was part of the Wednesdays at Noon Brownbag Series -- lectures put on by the Center for the Study of Women in Society. The Center's purpose is to generate support about research of women.
Hester said the goal of the lecture was to showcase the literary contribution of French women during the 17th century and show how it was a time when women's writing flourished. The publication of D'Aulnoy showed "it was OK to be a woman writer," she said.
Hester became interested in travel writing when she was in graduate school taking a class on Italian writing of the new world.
"It made me realize how rich travel writing was," she said. "It can tell so much of different cultures and different trends."
Andre Djiffack, a colleague of Hester, said the lecture was "excellent" and that Hester really dominated the subject.
"Travel writing is such a deep and rich subject for me," said Djiffack, who is an assistant professor of Francophone African Literature and 20th century French Literature. "It is a historical and also contemporary topic."
Wednesdays at Noon lectures are usually held in Hendricks Hall Room 330. The next will be held Nov. 10 and will be titled "Nuptial Nation: Marriage and the Politics of Civic Membership in the United States."
Missy Somers is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald
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