Voice, Identity, Gender: Women's Writing in France (level 6)

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Dr Nathalie Wourm
• Tutors: Professor Akane Kawakami, Dr Ann Lewis, Dr Damian Catani, Dr Nathalie Wourm
• Assessment: a 2500-word essay (40%) and 4500-word essay (60%)

Giving voice to a number of French women writers from the eighteenth century onwards, we will consider various constructs of female identity, and reflect on the notion of gendered writing. Is it possible to talk about 'women’s writing' without essentialising women, without working from stereotypes? What do women specifically bring to the cultural space through their novels and essays?

We will explore works of literature and feminist theory, taking into account their specific cultural and historical contexts, how they have evolved through time, and how they have been received. Authors studied will include feminist writers Simone de Beauvoir, Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray, as well as Mme Riccoboni, Claire de Duras, George Sand, Nathalie Sarraute and Marguerite Duras.

Indicative syllabus

• Fundamental feminist essays:
• 'Women’s Time' (1979) by Julia Kristeva
• 'The Laugh of the Medusa' (1975) by Hélène Cixous
• 'Women on the Market' (1978) by Luce Irigaray
• Nathalie Sarraute and Marguerite Duras:
• Nathalie Sarraute, Enfance (1983)
• Marguerite Duras, L’Amant (1984)
• Mid-eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century female writers:
• Mme Riccoboni, Histoire d’Ernestine (1765)
• Claire de Duras, Ourika (1823)
• George Sand and Simone de Beauvoir:
• George Sand, Indiana (1832)
• Simone de Beauvoir, Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée (1958)

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand the French and Francophone texts, contexts and issues under discussion
• critically evaluate the prescribed texts at a thematic as well as linguistic and stylistic level
• work comparatively within a wide range of historical and theoretical frameworks in the interpretation of the prescribed texts.