French and Francophone Literature Commons^™

A Comparative Critique Of Masculine Domination In Madame Bovary (1856) And Gemma Bovery (1999), Aqeela Hamarthya Czecheska Humayra, Diah Kartini Lasman

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines how social construction influences the representation of female autonomy through the transition of medium and temporal context. Its primary focus is to compare the mechanisms of masculine domination in Gustave Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary (1856) with Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel adaptation Gemma Bovery (1999). Utilizing Hutcheon’s adaptation theory (2013) and de Beauvoir’s existential feminism (1949), complemented by Freytag’s dramatic structure analysis (1900) as the main framework, this research proceeds from the premise that the transposition from text to visual medium has significant implications for changes in narrative strategies and plot. This study highlights the differing manifestations …

The Secret(S) To Success: Genlis’S Guide To Raising A Foolproof Daughter, Jennifer Law-Sullivan

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Abstract: “The Secret(s) to Success: Genlis’s Guide to Raising a Foolproof Daughter”

Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis’s Adèle et Théodore ou lettres sur l’éducation, first published in 1782, is an epistolary conduct novel that examines the question of how best to educate girls. Attempts to answer the question were exceedingly in vogue in the late 18^th century and can be traced back to Fénelon’s 1681 Traité de l’éducation des filles. Genlis’s novel offers a robust critique of previous education treatises, Rousseau, and a patriarchal society that did little to educate girls and mothers. She couches her critique in a …

And Now It Blooms And Sings: The Music And Poetry Of Noël By Clémence De Grandval, Nicholas Stephen Carozza

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document presents a historical background with poetic and musical analysis of Noël for voice, oboe, and piano by Clémence de Grandval (1828–1907) to contextualize the work within the lives of the composer, performers, and poet. Noël occupies an important period in Grandval’s life as one of the few pieces composed after 1900, and features a unique instrumentation of voice, oboe, and piano. The work is a musical setting of poetry by Nobel laureate Sully Prudhomme and was dedicated to oboist Louis Bleuzet and baritone Paul Daraux. This document presents biographical information, compositional background, records of performances, and analysis to …

Aquatic Interrelations In Malika Mokeddem’S Novel N’Zid (2001), Laura C. Klein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

This article offers an ecological analysis of Malika Mokeddem's novel N'Zid (2001), moving beyond postcolonial and anthropocentric interpretations. It centers on the protagonist Nora's individuation, arguing this process is intrinsically linked to her evolving relationship with the aquatic environment from which she emerges. The article aims to situate N'Zid within an ecological perspective, particularly relevant in the Anthropocene, an era compelling a reassessment of humanity's place. Echoing Bruno Latour, addressing inter-relationality is essential as the stable physical framework of the Moderns becomes unstable. This view necessitates rethinking environmental issues and encourages a scientific interpretation of the novel, drawing on neurosciences, …

Avant Et Après : Examen Du Proto-Féminisme À Travers La Résistance Littéraire En France Au Xve Siècle Et Au Mexique Au Xviie Siècle, Madison Coleman

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This essay seeks to understand the implications of a “before” distinction in the feminist canon— i.e., why is there “proto-feminism”, and not just “feminism”? This essay will explore the works of “proto-feminist” writers, Christine de Pizan and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and examine how the feminist themes and issues prevalent throughout their respective works are in response to the respective and collective inequities and injustices they experienced. Their oeuvres provide insight into what advocacy for women and other marginalized peoples looked like outside of the modern understanding of the historical “waves” of feminism. This essay seeks to examine …

Indiana Par George Sand : Une Perspective Écoféministe, Lily Gauntt

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

George Sand’s 1832 novel Indiana explores themes of love, individuality and social class as the titular character, Indiana, battles with the temptations and consequences of an affair with the handsome and elusive Raymon de Ramière. Sand’s novel centrally explores place as it jumps back and forth from high society France and Paris to the Ile Bourbon where Indiana is from. Sand’s depiction of the Ile Bourbon presents the agency of the more-than-human world as Indiana struggles against the society that she has been forced into and the male characters that control her life. The novel’s interplay between the more-than-human world …

Toxic Varnishes: Perfumes, Stench, And Glow In Eighteenth-Century French Salons, Érika Wicky

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

As several historians, including Alain Corbin, have noted, a new sensitivity to odors emerged in the 18^th century that increased people’s negative responses to strong smells and heightened the demand for fragrances that were not only pleasant but also light and subtle. Some scholars see this period as a true “olfactory revolution.” How was this expressed in the salon, perceived both as a luxurious space and a site of elite sociability? This focus on the smell of varnish aims to illustrate how the scent of materials intertwined with the pleasures of decorative arts, both in the entire space of …

Speculum Feminarum: Feminine Representation And Identity In Fifteenth-Century France, Karli R. Snyder

Art & Art History ETDs

Late medieval views of women in Western European culture, specifically in fifteenth-century France, were predicated on the ideologies of "other." According to normative sociocultural attitudes of this period, women were immoral, lascivious, and indulged in frivolity. Their culturally acceptable and, therefore, natural roles were delineated solely as that of wife and mother. Although the origin of these views is obscured by time, there are scores of textual and visual examples of this cultural labeling. This thesis focuses on how the ideologies of feminine sociocultural roles developed and matured during the late Middle Ages. By comparatively analyzing copies of the visual …

French Interwar Popular Romance And Ideals Of Femininity: A Literary And Historical Study Of Magali, Kelly Kamrath

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Against a background of political turmoil, economic crises, and cultural upsets from both within and abroad, France between the two World Wars was home to a flourishing romance novel industry. At first glance lighthearted love stories seem simple and frivolous in comparison to the canonical writings of the time, such as those of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, this literature was far from art for art’s sake. The romance novels of interwar France, written half a century before the scholarship of romance fiction would truly begin, have yet to receive the attention they deserve. During the interwar period, …

Queer Not: Medieval Romance's Toll On Queerness, Kyle Gaydo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

How does a contemporary audience handle medieval queerness? What, exactly, constitutes medieval queerness, and how does the medieval literary genre of romance impact it? This thesis attempts to grapple with these questions, and many more, utilizing the 13th-century Old French romance Le Roman de Silence by Heldris de Cornuälle. Medieval romances are particularly fruitful for this analysis because, on one hand, the genre consistently re/turns to cisheteronormativity, and, on the other, because scholarship generally has not applied queer theory to the study of romance. Silence follows Silence, a young Englishwoman who is raised as a boy to protect her family’s …

« Monologue » : Une Femme Rompue Impactée Par Les Atteintes Sociétales, Sloane Larsen

World Languages Student Scholarship

“Monologue,” an essay from Simone de Beauvoir’s THE WOMAN DESTROYED, is a rambling and disjointed account of motherhood, madness, and chagrin. The short story is told by a mother named Murielle, a woman who has lost everything, including her daughter Sylvie, by suicide. Simone de Beauvoir, the author of this story, is considered the “mother” (Kruks and Coryell) of second-wave feminism and is well-known for her fight for equality between the sexes. In “Monologue,” de Beauvoir sheds light on the difficulties mothers face and proposes a reflection on life, femininity, and descent into madness. De Beauvoir incorporates her feminist theories …

Gendered Violence And The Family: An Analysis Of The 14th-Century Epic "Lion De Bourges", Ashley Paige Holt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is the first to focus on gender roles within the fourteenth-century French epic Lion de Bourges and the first work to feature extensive translations into English of this medieval text. Using the cyclical dismemberment and reunification of the Bourges family as a lens, it brings into focus the various members of the family, their relationships, and the larger thematic questions about family and society put forward by the poet. Chapter one interrogates the notion of the king as a national father figure as well as the spread of injury and violence from the father/king to the members of …

"Je Vous Donne Toute Mon Âme" : Une Traduction De L'Intimité Féminine Dans Isidora De George Sand, Shelby M. Kruger

French Honors Projects

Malgré la célébrité de l’écrivaine prolifique George Sand, plusieurs de ses œuvres restent non traduites et inaccessibles aux lecteurs anglophones aujourd’hui. Ce projet examine le livre Isidora, écrit par Sand en 1846, et fournit une traduction partielle du texte. Un essai critique accompagne cette traduction qui explore les raisons de l'obscurité de ce texte en comparaison avec d’autres œuvres de Sand, et affirme la pertinence du livre aux lecteurs anglophones du XXIe siècle. Je propose que le cœur de la pertinence et l’excellence d’Isidora réside surtout dans les relations féminines intimes que Sand a créées. La création d’une …

Neither Invisible, Nor Silenced: The India-Maghreb Connections In Female-Authored Cinema, Chandra Balkaran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Third-World” women have long been excluded from center screen space, and positioned as stereotypical characters in liminal, coded spaces—such as harems, brothels, convents, ashrams, zawiyas or in domestic space. Yet, spatial organization is integral to the production of the social, not merely its result, and is fully implicated in both history and politics. Space is thus a crucial category of analysis in any cinema. My thesis examines how spaces, from the domestic to the virtual, socio-religio-cultural are reclaimed, redefined, and reformulated by women in politically engaged films made by Third-World women directors focused on women. Their struggles for space are …

Not Your Average Rose: Cultural Inversion In Pizan’S 'City Of Ladies', Alex Donley

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This research addresses Le Livre de la Cité des Dames—translated into English as The Book of the City of Ladies—as an outstanding work of proto-feminist literature from 1405. It is written by a woman, in defense of women. Christine de Pizan plays the central character in her own work, in which she combats misogyny with a revised account of history. She battles prevalent ideals of courtly love and gender inequality as things that are not merely repulsive or immoral, but wholly heretical. Rather than focusing on historical accuracy, de Pizan uses the literary power of her narrative to …

Queer Displacements: Minorities, Mobilities, And Mobilizations In French And Francophone Literature, Thomas Muzart

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Focusing on the work of Virginie Despentes, Jean Genet, Guy Hocquenghem, and Abdellah Taïa, this dissertation challenges the antisocial turn taken in queer theory, by means of a parallel study of the authors’ geographical and intellectual itineraries. While critics like Leo Bersani and Lee Edelman have suggested that the revolutionary potential in queer identity lies in its opposition to romanticized forms of community, I argue, along with José Esteban Muñoz, that their praising of singularity and negativity is similarly extreme. Alternatively, my study shows how the geographical displacements both experienced and imagined by my primary authors can illuminate the passage …

Honoré De Balzac’S Portrayal Of The Feminine Condition In The Wild Ass’S Skin, Père Goriot, And The Lily Of The Valley, Brooke V. Musmeci

Honors Theses

In 19th century France, women appeared to be second class citizens. They were often limited in their abilities to have independence and secure their own wealth. This perception of women perhaps justifies why, as Honoré de Balzac’s novels illustrated the realities of French society, he attempted to characterize women’s struggles to obtain control and power in their lives. In his novels The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), The Lily of the Valley (1835), and Le Père Goriot (1835), Balzac sought to prove how women could improve their lot.

Firstly, in studying how women had been relegated to second-class citizens under their …

La Princesse Adrosis Fille De L'Empereur Hadrien: Sainte Et Martyre, Laila Fares

Showcase of Faculty Scholarly & Creative Activity

Le présent ouvrage est l’ensemble de leçons hebdomadaires que j’enseignai il y a quatorze ans. Le vif intérêt que témoignèrent mes étudiants à la princesse Adrosis m’avait encouragé à poursuivre l’histoire en prose, au-delà du petit poème que j’avais composé en 2003 au jour de sa fête célébrée au synexaire copte le 18 Hathor. Les questions de compréhension et de réflexion qui suivent chaque leçon peuvent servir dans un but didactique ou ludique. Vous pouvez en faire une activité de loisir ou d’enseignement pour l’édification et le développement spirituel de vos étudiants. L’histoire de la princesse Adrosis relève de l’histoire …

Simultaneous Intersectionality In The Comics Of Catel And Sabrina Jones: Understanding Women’S Life Stories, Jeorg Ellen Hornsby

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

The project examines how the theories of simultaneity and intersectionality are useful in analyzing the lived experiences of the authors and their subjects. Specifically, this dissertation analyzes how French comic artist Catel and American comics artist Sabrina Jones use the medium of comics to recount their autobiographical stories within and alongside their biographical stories of Benoîte Groult and Margaret Sanger, respectively.

"If They Don't Tell You, The Hair Will": Hair Narrative In Contemporary Women's Writing, Darina Pugacheva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The history of colonial and racial oppression made hair stories and testimonials fundamental to understanding hair as a unifying element particular for women of African descent in the post-slavery era. Seen as such, their hair narrations provide the first-person perspective of their life experiences while at the same time inviting a critical investigation of colonial and racial oppression. Contemporary women writers develop these types of narrations into a special language of hair that helps them tell a story that is not apparent or straightforward. This literary device that uses hair to uncover deeper social and political issues is bound up …

Amazones Et Guerrieres Dans L'Reuvre Romanesque De Fatou Diome, Lydia Bauer

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

One enters Fatou Diome's creative work as in a wrestling arena. She features strong female narrators and characters. These, just like amazons, battle against the patriarchal system, unfair treatments and prejudices of all kinds, in order to regain their dignity and freedom. Their weapons are of the intellectual kind such as language and writing. In this article, we examine different kinds of battles featured in Diome's novels by focusing on both plot and narration.

If The Shoe Fits: Cinderella And Women's Voice, Farrah V. Kurronen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

One of the fundamental stories in fairy tale studies is "Cinderella": folkloric designation ATU 510A, the Persecuted Heroine. As Fairy tale and Folklore studies continue to evolve, authors beyond Basile, Perrault and Grimm are added into the Cinderella canon to lend a more nuanced approach to the study of this fairy tale. Yet "Cinderella" is still often interpreted as a tale of feminine submissiveness, in which the heroine is little more than a passive ornament or else a likeable social-climber. These interpretations stem largely from the focus of "Cinderella" stories written by men. Though studies of "Cinderella" are expanding, "Cendrillon", …

She Must Be Crazy: Alternative Realities In Contemporary Francophone Literature, Emily Barclay Spriggs, Emily Barclay Spriggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Globally and historically, madness appears as a prominent socio-medical concern that also occupies a significant space in literary tradition. There has been an increase in the number of scholars who study madness and literature in postcolonial works. However, the predominant view and treatment of madness – both socially and medically – adheres to the European, white male construct that has informed a more or less universal regard of those who suffer from mental woes: they are deranged, sick, ill. This poses a problem for postcolonial works when we consider the sexist and racist implications in psychology that were enhanced through …

Dorothy Moser Medlin Papers - Accession 1049, Dorothy Moser Medlin

Manuscript Collection

(The Dorothy Moser Medlin Papers are currently in processing.)

This collection contains most of the records of Dorothy Medlin’s work and correspondence and also includes reference materials, notes, microfilm, photographic negatives related both to her professional and personal life. Additions include a FLES Handbook, co-authored by Dorothy Medlin and a decorative mirror belonging to Dorothy Medlin.

Major series in this collection include: some original 18th century writings and ephemera and primary source material of André Morellet, extensive collection of secondary material on André Morellet's writings and translations, Winthrop related files, literary manuscripts and notes by Dorothy Medlin (1966-2011), copies …

Je Cuidoie Avoir Bien Fait: Saintré And The Rules Of The Game, Catherine Blunk

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

In Antoine de La Sale’s fifteenth-century work Jehan de Saintré, a point of rupture in the amorous relationship between Madame des Belles Cousines and Saintré is initiated when this young knight decides to organize and participate in an emprise (a late medieval tournament) without notifying her or asking for permission from the king of France. In this article I will show that that by failing to secure royal authorization before organizing an emprise, Saintré commits a more serious error than often acknowledged in the scholarship about this text. This is important, because many scholars read this scene as …

Flora Tristan’S Plural Identities In "Peregrinaciones De Una Paria": Challenging And Reproducing Existing Power Structures, Nancy Tille-Victorica

The Coastal Review

This article analyses the ways in which Franco-Peruvian author Flora Tristan crosses the border of her plural identities in her famous travel book Peregrinaciones de una paria (1837). It especially looks at how she performs as a male in certain situations and how these are generally associated with her French identity. It also considers her identification as a woman and how it is linked to her Peruvian identity. These examinations reveal how Tristan actually redefines herself as a pariah and how her definition differs from that of outcast imposed on her in France prior to her departure for Peru.

French Women In Art: Reclaiming The Body Through Creation/Les Femmes Artistes Françaises : La Réclamation Du Corps À Travers La Création, Liatris Hethcoat

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The research I have conducted for my French Major Senior Thesis is a culmination of my passion for and studies of both French language and culture and the history and practice of Visual Arts. I have examined, across the history of art, the representation of women, and concluded that until the 20^th century, these representations have been tools employed by the makers of history and those at the top of the patriarchal system, used to control women’s images and thus women themselves. I survey these representations, which are largely created by men—until the 20^th century. I discuss pre-historical …

Penelope’S Daughters, Barbara Dell`Abate-Çelebi

Zea E-Books Collection

A feminist perspective of the myth of Penelope in Annie Leclerc’s Toi, Pénélope, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad and Silvana La Spina’s Penelope.

At the origin of Western literature stands Queen Penelope—faithfully waiting for her husband to come home: keeping house, holding on to the throne, keeping the suitors at arm’s length, preserving Odysseus’ place and memory, deserted for the pursuit of war and adventures, and bringing up a son alone, but always keeping the marriage intact. Yet recently the character of Penelope, long the archetype of abandoned, faithful, submissive, passive wife, has been reinterpreted by feminist criticism and re-envisioned by …

Gendered Virtue: A Study Of Its Meaning And Evolution In Early Modern France, Mariela Saad

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Virtue in early modern France was a broad concept considered by clergymen, philosophers, and moralists as an instrument for measuring and implementing human ethics. This unprecedented research seeks to track the development of the notion of virtue from a gendered and dichotomous notion to a unique and undivided term. The word virtue is constantly present in French texts such as manuels de conduite1 , since the medieval period. Thus, it can be regarded as one of the most significant concepts defining genders in Western civilization. However, it is difficult for modern readers to grasp the complexity of the debate unless …

Treasure Hunt Without A Map: Archival Research At The University Of Pennsylvania, Meghan Strong

English and Creative Writing Independent Study Projects

Under the supervision of Meredith Goldsmith in the English Department, I spent this semester developing archival research projects for lower level students in the humanities. My project corresponded with the aims of the Council for Undergraduate Research, which works to develop undergraduate research skills throughout the disciplines. The Kislak Center is a nearby resource that has the potential to provide students with opportunities to develop crucial research skills while discovering little pieces of history that are hidden away in the archives. The final exercises presented here focus on the subjects of Walt Whitman, Marian Anderson, and Michel de Montaigne.