In her work, originally published in New York as The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography (1978) and shortly after in London under the title The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979), Angela Carter claims that the pornographic literature of the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) can be used by twentieth-century feminists because within it the “nature” of women is exposed as culturally determined. Carter’s critical enquiry follows three of Sade’s texts: Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1791), Juliette, or The Prosperities of Vice (1797), and Philosophy in the Boudoir (1795). By addressing Sade’s female characters Justine, Juliette, and Eugénie, Carter critiques the glorification of female suffering, dethrones the “mythic” mother, and condemns complicity with the social constructions of femininity.
Carter’s text was published just after the political debates in the mid-1970s...
1983 words
Citation: Crawford, Amy Suzanne. "The Sadeian Woman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 July 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7637, accessed 09 June 2026.]
