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Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

1996

Mother

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Addressing Success: Fame And Narrative Strategies In Colette's La Naissance Du Jour, Juliette M. Rogers Jun 1996

Addressing Success: Fame And Narrative Strategies In Colette's La Naissance Du Jour, Juliette M. Rogers

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Colette's La Naissance du jour (1928) is probably her most renowned work on the complex mother-daughter relations between her mother Sido and herself. Yet, as I demonstrate in this article, the book is just as much about renown itself. Beginning with the theoretical works of Leo Braudy (The Frenzy of Renown), John Rodden (The Politics of Literary Reputation), and a close analysis of La Naissance du jour, I look at the ways in which Colette manipulated her narratives to create her own public images ofherself. These manipulations would allow her to perpetuate the fame that …


Reading In Colette: Domination, Resistance, Autonomy, Laurel Cummins Jun 1996

Reading In Colette: Domination, Resistance, Autonomy, Laurel Cummins

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The act of reading on the part of Colette's characters reveals itself as a dynamic involving domination and resistance. A study of passages from two of her semi-autobiographical works, La Maison de Claudine and Sido, brings to light both a positively connoted model of reading, exemplified by the character 'Colette,' and a negatively connoted model, exemplified by the older sister Juliette. While Juliette approaches texts with no sense of self, and seeks instead to be defined by the texts she reads, 'Colette' remains in relation to texts and to the discourses they contain, and resists them. Gender complicates the …