Françoise Choay: A Woman and Her Time:

A Reading on Female Intellectuals in a Male-Dominated Universe

Abstract

The 1960s in France, as in other countries, have raised questions that require the articulation of various types of documentation, especially when biographical events are scrutinized, such as those related to philosopher Françoise Choay. It is known that this philosopher worked as a writer, professor, and translator; she produced writings on themes that intersected the disciplinary fields of philosophy, art history, architecture, and urbanism, among others. She moved with mastery in academic, editorial, and journalistic environments, many of which, in this time frame, were dominated by men. This article aims to understand Françoise Choay in her feminine condition and exceptional position: what did it mean to be a woman of her time in the places she occupied? Based on her professional biography, the goal was to explore, through an ongoing subject context movement, the intellectual currents surrounding her, as she either adhered to or distanced herself from them. The issue at hand is grounded in Cultural History, particularly in the works of Pierre Bourdieu (2006) and Pierre Nora (1993), and refers to the relationship between memory and history, seen as an interactive game that allows for mutual overlap. The approach adopted considered the investigation of her intellectual formation, the events of May 68, the reform of higher education in architecture and urbanism, the creation of the experimental university of Vincennes, her familial origins and roots, her experience in a communist maquis in Corrèze, the rise of feminism, and intellectual confrontations. In this way, it was possible to interconnect the investigated aspects into a critical narrative.