• Keywords

French literature, gender studies, Comparative literature, women writers, Roaring Twenties, Interwar period

• Profile and skills required

Master : French literature or comparative literature

• Project description

Starting from the hypothesis developed by Monique Wittig in The Straight Mind (1992) according to which women who deny the societal and patriarchal straitjacket can no longer be considered as such, it seems interesting to question the gendered identity of these writers. This question is all the more necessary as these authors turn to the writings of themselves through which they seek a response to their identity crisis. These intimate writings should allow us to define a common aesthetic, which we propose to call «non-binary», according to the term used in sociology, particularly in Judith Butler’s Gender trouble (1990).

• References

Correspondance amoureuse (1899-1905) entre Natalie Clifford-Barney et Liane de Pougy, Lettres inédites à Jean-Charles Brun (1900-1909) par Renée Vivien, ainsi que Letters Autobiography (1923-1941) par Virginia Woolf et Vita Sackville-West ; d’autre part, les écrits intimes de ces autrices, et en particulier The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) rédigé par Gertrude Stein d’après les journaux d’Alice, sa compagne.

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