Almanac of Story Tellers: Olympe de Gouges

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Nov. 3rd

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    It is the 307th day of the year, leaving 58 days remaining in 2022. 

   

    On this date in 1793, the French playwright and feminist, Olympe de Gouges, was beheaded during the French revolution.

    She told her stories questioning the second-class status of women in society, the dominant role men maintain, and the evils of the slave trade in plays and in pamphlets. She argued for the abolition of slavery and for women's equality. 

    She brought those taboo subjects to the stages of  Paris in her writing and literary salons.

    He first play, L'Homme Généeux (The Generous Man) dealt with how women lack political power and how men exploit them through their sexual and physical control. It spoke about the injustice of debtors' prisons. It was published in 1785, yet never produced.

    

    She struggled to have her plays performed. The first one to be staged was L'Esclavage de Négres, which had been renamed several times and was delayed for four years after the French theater group realized a woman had written it. It was the first French play to show the inhumanity of slavery -- and the first to show it from the perspective of a slave. It was shut down after three days because of its message.

    de Gouges used the experience to argue for a second national theater for women playwrights.

    She used the French Revolution to speak out for women's rights. In 1791, she published Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the rights of woman and of the female citizen) as a reply to the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du Citoyen, (Declaration of the rights of man and of the male citizen), which was published two years earlier.

    She was the third women sent to the guillotine during the revolution, and the only one executed for her political writings. She had sided with moderates and defended King Louis XVI, and called for a vote for citizens to determine what form of government they wanted. After her allies lost support, she was arrested, tried, and executed on Nov. 3, 1793.