Quaker library explores France and Friends
Andrea Goulet presented research at an event called: ‘Did the French Like the Friends? A brief cultural history’
The Library of the Society of Friends hosted a talk last week exploring representations of Quakers in nineteenth-century French popular culture.
Andrea Goulet, professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, presented research and materials from the library related to her upcoming book. The event on 9 December was called: ‘Did the French Like the Friends? A brief cultural history’.
Yoshika Kobayashi, access and engagement coordinator for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), told the Friend that the talk was about Andrea Goulet’s book ‘which argues that vaudeville plays, serial novels, caricatures, fashion magazines, and newspaper columns from the period used stereotypes of the Anglo-American Friends in order to work through France’s own internal debates about pacifism vs. military glory, honesty vs. hypocrisy, modesty vs. glamour, and egalitarianism vs. social hierarchy – well after the French Revolution had supposedly established the republican values of “liberté, égalité, and fraternité.”’
Comments
Did Professor Andrea Goulet’s research include input from https://www.maison-quaker-congenies.org/en/ or from France Yearly Meeting https://www.quakersenfrance.org/ ?
By Daniel Clarke Flynn on 18th December 2025 - 10:06
Please login to add a comment
