Le Siècle des Lumières a produit un grand nombre de bouleversements, non seulement dans le domaine politique, mais aussi les domaines économiques et sociaux. C’est dans ce contexte qu’Olympe de Gouges marque l’histoire. Par le biais de lettres, brochures, articles ou encore affiches placardées, Olympe de Gouges a cherché à influencer non seulement les institutions mais aussi l’opinion publique. En commençant par la dramaturgie, elle s’engage aux côtés des abolitionnistes de l’esclavage et lutte pour l’évolution des mœurs. Elle se consacre ensuite à ses écrits pamphlétaires dans lesquels elle plaide pour la cause des plus démunis et pour le partage des richesses. Son avant-gardisme tient encore dans le fait qu’elle remet en question la place et le rôle des femmes dans la vie de la cité. Aujourd’hui, sa posture humaniste résonne d’une contemporanéité aiguë, alors que ne cessent de se multiplier les exemples d’un capitalisme qui accroît le fossé entre les nantis et les démunis. Dès lors, l’engagement d’Olympe de Gouges apparaît comme un support idéel envisageable de la composition archéologique de la pensée des communs. Ce courant philosophique et politique actuel prône en effet l’organisation concertée de l’usage des ressources, de sorte que la responsabilisation des individus, co-acteurs de leur présent et de leur devenir, assure l’équité et la pérennité de cet usage. Au cœur du mouvement des communs réside le souci du vivre-ensemble, ce qui implique une refonte des institutions et des modes de vie. En ce sens, la posture d’Olympe de Gouges préfigure l’éthique du care (le prendre soin, le souci de l’autre) et, de fait, la prise en compte des spécificités de chacun, le respect d’autrui et des genres, implicitement inclus dans le mouvement des communs. Malmenée par l’historiographie, Olympe de Gouges est peu mentionnée dans les ouvrages consacrés à l’histoire de la République des Lettres. Par conséquent, notre travail se situe dans une démarche d’actualité de manière à ce que la postérité de ses idées progressistes contribue à imaginer et à bâtir la société à venir. -- Mots-clés : Olympe de Gouges, Siècle des Lumières, éthique du care, philosophie des communs, abolition de l’esclavage, monarchie constitutionnelle, presse, théâtre, féminisme. / The Age of Enlightenment has produced a great deal of upheaval, not only in the political sphere, but also in the economic and social spheres. It is in this context that Olympe de Gouges marks the history. By means of letters, pamphlets, articles or placarded posters, Olympe de Gouges sought to influence not only the institutions but also the public opinion. Beginning with dramaturgy, she engages herself with the abolitionists of slavery and struggle for the evolution of morals. Then, she devoted herself to her lampooned writings in which she pleaded for the cause of the most bereft persons and for the sharing of wealth. Its avant-gardism is still due to the fact that it questions the place and the role of women in the city life. Today, its humanist posture echoes with an acute contemporaneity, while the examples of a capitalism which increases the gap between the haves and others multiply. Henceforth, the commitment of Olympe de Gouges appears as an ideal support for the archaeological composition of the thinking of commons. This philosophical and political current advocates the concerted organization of the use of resources, so that the responsibility of individuals, co-actors of their present and their future, ensures the fairness and durability of this use. At the heart of the movement of commons lies the concern for living together, which implies an overhaul of institutions and ways of life. In this sense, the Olympe de Gouges ‘posture prefigures the ethics of care (caring, care for the other) and, in fact, taking into account the specificities of each one, respect for others and genders, implicitly included in the movement of the thinking of commons. Criticized by historiography, Olympe de Gouges is little mentioned in the Republic of Letters ‘history. Consequently, our work is based on a topical approach so that the posterity of its progressive ideas helps to imagine and build the society to come. Key-words: Olympe de Gouges, Age of Enlightenment, ethic of care, commons ‘philosophy, abolition of slavery, constitutional monarchy, press, theater, feminism.

Twentieth-century scholars have extensively studied how Rousseau's domestic discourse impacted the patriarchal ideology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and contributed to women's exclusion from the public sphere. Joan Landes, Lynn Hunt, and many others, argued that the French Revolution excluded women from the public sphere and confined them to the domestic realm. Joan Landes also argued that the patriarchal discourse was a mere reflection of social reality. In The Other Enlightenment, Carla Hesse argues for the women's presence in the public sphere. One of the goals of this dissertation is to contribute to the debate by analyzing the content of the counter-discourse of selected women authors during the revolutionary era and examine how they challenged and subverted the patriarchal discourse. In the second chapter, I reconstruct the patriarchal discourse. I first examine the official (or legal) discourse in crucial works which remain absent from major modern sources: Jean Domat's Loix civiles dans leur order naturel and Louis de Héricourt's Loix eccleésiastiques de France dans leur order naturel. Then I look at how scientists like Monroe, Roussel, Lignac, Venel, and Robert used discoveries regarding woman's physiology to create a medical discourse that justifies woman's inferiority so as to confine them into the domestic/private sphere. I examine how intellectuals such as Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, Coyer and Laclos, reinforced women's domesticity. In chapter 3, I examine women's participation in the early stage of the Revolution and the overt attempt by some women to claim their place in the public sphere and to challenge and subvert the oppressive patriarchal discourse through their writings. Chapter 4 focuses on Olympe de Gouges's theater and a specific example of subversion of the patriarchal discourse: I compare the father figure in Diderot's La Religieuse and de Gouges's play Le Couvent, ou les Voeux forcés. Finally chapter 5 examines women's involvement in the French Revolution after 1794 and Constance de Salm's attack on patriarchy.