Romance and Readership in Twentieth-Century France: Love Stories PDF
Preview Romance and Readership in Twentieth-Century France: Love Stories
RomanceandReadership inTwentieth-CenturyFrance OXFORDSTUDIESINMODERNEUROPEANCULTURE GENERALEDITORS ElizabethFallaize,RobinFiddian,andKatrinKohl TheOxfordStudiesinModernEuropeanCultureseriesisconceivedasaresponse to the changing modes of study of European literature and culture in many universities. Designed to combine focus with breadth, each title in the series presentsarangeoftextsorfilmsindialoguewiththeirhistoricalandcultural contexts—notsimplyasareflectionofhistorybutengagedinamediationwith history,conceivedinbroadtermsascultural,social,andpoliticalhistory.Flexible, interdisciplinaryapproachesareencouragedtogetherwiththeuseoftextsoutside thetraditionalcanonalongsidemorefamiliarworks.Inordertomakethevolumes accessiblenotonlytostudentsofmodernlanguagesbutalsotothosestudyingthe historyorpoliticsofmodernEurope,allquotationsareofferedbothintheoriginal languageandinEnglish. ROMANCE AND READERSHIP IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY FRANCE Love Stories DianaHolmes 1 1 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ©DianaHolmes2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbyLaserwordsPrivateLimited,Chennai,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0–19–924984–9 978–0–19–924984–8 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Acknowledgements WarmthankstoPennyWelchandElizabethFallaizefortheirastuteand helpfulreadingsofworkinprogress,andfortheirencouragement. Andthankstothemanycolleagues,friends,andfamilymemberswho haveencounteredpartsofthisworkintheformofconferencepapers, or just in conversation, and responded with questions, comments, or suggestions. Finally, thanks to the students who have followed my courses on women’swritingandcinemawhileIhavebeenwritingthisbook,and contributedtheirinterest,enthusiasm,andcriticalinsights. TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction 1 1. AFeminineGenre:RomanceandWomen 5 2. Passion,Piety,andtheNewWoman:RomanticFictionatthe BelleE´poque 21 3. ReactionandResistance:Romanceinthe1930sandunderthe Occupation 46 4. LoveinaBraveNewWorld:Romanceinthe1950s 71 5. RomanceafterFeminism 92 6. LoveinaPostmodernAge:ContemporaryRomanceinFrance 115 Conclusion 140 References 143 Index 153 TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk This page intentionally left blank Introduction Writingandreadingromancesisgenerallythoughtofassomethingthat women do. The association of women with romance has often been usedtoconfirmgenderstereotypes:womenarethesentimentalsex,by nature more interested in private, emotional matters than in political or philosophicalconcerns, narcissistically inclined toconsume stories thatreproduceandembellishtheirownpersonaldramas.Ihaveavivid memoryofwantingtodistancemyselffromthisdemeaningconstruction of who I was: mid-teens, newly but firmly self-identified as a serious readerunlimitedbymeregender,Iwasaskedbymygrandmatochange herbookswhileIwasatthelibrary.ThismeantapproachingtheRomance section,being seentoselectamongst thethinpink andblue volumes oftheMills andBoon series.Igrabbedacouple,concealedthemand headedstraightfortheseriousendofthelibrarywhereIfeltIbelonged,to choose—what?Certainlyawiderangeofbooks,fromDickenstoCamus viaAgathaChristieandEdgarWallace(crime,somehow,wasadultand respectableinawaythatromancejustwasn’t),butalwaysincludinga Bronte¨oranAustenoraGeorgetteHeyer,oranearlyMargaretDrabble,or atranslatedAnge´lique(spicy,butwiththetouchofseriousnessconferred bybeingoriginallyinFrench)—inotherwords,storiesoflove.IfIreview my current reading practices, the books I read in bed at night or on holiday,forpleasure,Ifindthesamepattern:themajorityarebywomen writers,andmostofthemare,usuallyamongstotherthings,lovestories. Idon’tthinkthatIamunusualinthis. Asafeminist,one’sfirstreactiontothegenerallyderogatorysuggestion thatwomenjustwriteandreadaboutloveistoprovethecontrary,and this can certainly be done. Women novelists have of course ranged across genres, from the philosophical and political novel (in France, most famously, Sand, Beauvoir) to the formally experimental (Duras, Sarraute), the sociological (Ernaux), the roman policier (Fred Vargas), andsoon.Butoncethiscasehasbeenmade,thefactstillremainsthat themass-marketromance,withitsalmostexclusivelyfemaleauthorship and readership, has been the most consistently popular (even if also themostcriticallydespised)genreofthelasthundredyears.Moreover, throughoutthesameperiod,therehasbeenanimportantlayerofvery widely read ‘middlebrow’ women’s writing centred on the love story,
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