Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.--Brown University), 1990.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-330) and index.

Cover; CONTENTS; Part Two -- La Mere; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction This Civilization No Longer Has Sexes; Part One -- La Femme Modeme; 1 This Being Without Breasts, Without Hips; 2 She Stood at the Center of a Shattered World; 3 Women Are Cutting Their Hair as a Sign of Sterility; Figures follow page 88; 4 A Matter of Life or Death; 5 Madame Doesn't Want a Child; Part Three -- La Femme Seule; 6 There Is Something Else in Life besides Love; 7 We Must Facilitate the Transition to the New World; Conclusion -- Are We Witnessing the Birth of a New Civilization?; Notes; Index.

In the raucous decade following World War I, newly blurred boundaries between male and female created fears among the French that theirs was becoming a civilization without sexes. This new gender confusion became a central metaphor for the War's impact on French culture and led to a marked increase in public debate concerning female identity and woman's proper role. Mary Louise Roberts examines how in these debates French society came to grips with the catastrophic horrors of the Great War. In sources as diverse as parliamentary records, newspaper articles, novels, medical texts, writings on se.