THERE, WHERE NATURE SHUDDERS IN HORROR:
CRITIQUES OF COLONIALISM IN THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHY OF OLYMPE DE GOUGES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/endoxa.55.2025.45181Keywords:
Enlightenment, Feminism, Anti-racism, Slavery, Natural LawAbstract
This article aims to analyze the play L’esclavage des Noirs ou L’heureux naufrage, written by Olympe de Gouges in 1782. The play was published in 1788 and performed in the revolutionary fervor of Paris in December 1789. This drama, focused on the situation in the French Caribbean colonies, represents the major exponent of De Gouges's critique of the imperialist and enslaving system. The aim is to reexamine L’heureux naufrage to investigate the radicalization of the iusnaturalist philosophy carried out by De Gouges, whose central strategy is the use of Enlightenment language (Amorós, 1996; 2000). The reading hypothesis suggests that De Gouges's antiracist writings constitute a pioneering critique of the modern concept of nature, which is later consolidated in her feminist essays. Furthermore, it shows that what we now call an “intersectional approach” was already present in the early stages of the women's movement, at the dawn of feminist developments.
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