"In Exotic Women, Julia V. Douthwaite describes the interrelated representations of cultural and sexual difference in key French works of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The heroines of this study are foreign women, brought to France through no will of their own and forced into the margins of a new society. Douthwaite contends that their experience resonates with larger cultural beliefs about exotic and primitive peoples in ancien regime France and illuminates some of the blind spots in Enlightenment thought." "Throughout this study, Douthwaite juxtaposes male- and female-authored texts in order to investigate the ways in which the exotic is used to affirm or interrogate French cultural norms. By studying relatively canonical texts and popular novels by women in conjunction with travel writings and early book illustrations, Douthwaite demonstrates that literary scenarios of cultural conflict often duplicate the conflicts in gender relations." "Informed by recent writing on colonialism and feminist theory, Exotic Women addresses a variety of controversial issues. These include: the problematic distribution of power and voice in European fictions of exoticism; the social and ethnocentric limitations of Enlightenment political philosophy; and the essentialist principles which hide behind Enlightenment claims of cultural relativism. Exotic Women views the exotic heroine not just as an element in eighteenth-century literature, but as a highly charged symbol--one capable of exposing the underside of optimistic Enlightenment discourse." "This fascinating and original work will be of interest to students and scholars of women's studies, cultural studies, French literature, and eighteenth-century studies."--BOOK JACKET.