ebook img

Stendhal's Less-Loved Heroines: Fiction, Freedom, and the Female PDF

142 Pages·2013·3.972 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Stendhal's Less-Loved Heroines: Fiction, Freedom, and the Female

S C O T T Who are the real heroes of Stendhal’s fiction? Stendhal’s research monographs in Less-Loved Heroines overturns accepted ideas about the place french studies form a S of men and women in his novels and shorter stories. It separate series within the t e challenges the notion that French Realist fiction is peculiarly legenda programme and n and intrinsically hostile to female freedom, arguing that it are selected and edited d is criticism itself that has marginalized Stendhal’s non- by the Society for French h a compliant heroines and condemned them as self-centred. Studies. The series seeks to l Mina de Vanghel, Vanina Vanini, Mathilde de La Mole, publish the best new work ’s and Lamiel are self-seeking in the fullest possible sense, in all areas of the literature, L e committed to the pursuit of their own happiness and the thought, theory, culture, s RESEARCH MONOGRAPHS IN FRENCH STUDIES 37 s realization of their freedom in a world where these were seen film and language of the - L as incompatible goals for women. Scott contends that the French-speaking world. o philosophy of freedom championed by Sartre and Beauvoir v Stendhal’s Less-Loved Heroines e enables an alternative reading of Stendhal’s less-loved d heroines, one that finally does justice to their formidable H power of — and pleasure in — self-invention. e r Maria Scott is Lecturer in French at National University of o Fiction, Freedom, and the Female i n Ireland, Galway. e s Maria C. Scott ISBN 978-1-907975-71-4 cover illustration: Title page of the second volume of the first edition of Le Rouge et le Noir, published by 9 781907 975714 Levavasseur (1831). © Bibliothèque nationale de France Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge MScott-9781907975714-cover.indd 1 5/4/13 17:22:01 Stendhal’s Less-Loved Heroines Fiction, Freedom, and the Female Legenda leenda, founded in 1995 by the european Humanities Research Centre of the University of Oxford, is now a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities Research association and Routledge. Titles range from medieval texts to contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern humanities, including works on arabic, Catalan, english, French, german, greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish literature. an editorial Board of distinguished academic specialists works in collaboration with leading scholarly bodies such as the Society for French Studies and the British Comparative Literature association. The Modern Humanities Research association (mhra) encourages and promotes advanced study and research in the field of the modern humanities, especially modern european languages and literature, including english, and also cinema. It also aims to break down the barriers between scholars working in different disciplines and to maintain the unity of humanistic scholarship in the face of increasing specialization. The association fulfils this purpose primarily through the publication of journals, bibliographies, monographs and other aids to research. Routledge is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the humanities and social sciences. Founded in 1836, it has published many of the greatest thinkers and scholars of the last hundred years, including adorno, einstein, Russell, Popper, Wittgenstein, Jung, Bohm, Hayek, Mcluhan, Marcuse and Sartre. Today Routledge is one of the world’s leading academic publishers in the Humanities and Social Sciences. It publishes thousands of books and journals each year, serving scholars, instructors, and professional communities worldwide. www.routledge.com research monographs in french studies the Research Monographs in French Studies (rmfs) are selected, edited and supported by the society for french studies. the series seeks to publish the best new work in all areas of the literature, thought, theory, culture, film and language of the french- speaking world. its distinctiveness lies in the tight focus and relative brevity of its publications (50,000-60,000 words). as innovation is a priority of the series, volumes should predominantly consist of new material, although, subject to appropriate modification, previously published research may form up to one third of the whole. proposals may include critical editions as well as critical studies. they should be sent with one or two sample chapters for consideration to the general editor, professor diana Knight, at diana. [email protected]. ❖ Editorial Committee diana Knight, university of nottingham (general editor) adrian armstrong, Queen mary, university of London Janice carruthers, Queen’s university Belfast nicholas harrison, King’s college London neil Kenny, all souls college, oxford Jennifer Yee, christ church, oxford Advisory Committee Wendy ayres-Bennett, new hall, cambridge celia Britton, university college London ann Jefferson, new college, oxford sarah Kay, princeton university diana Knight, university of nottingham michael moriarty, university of cambridge Keith reader, university of glasgow Managing Editor graham nelson 41 Wellington Square, Oxford ox1 2jf, UK puBLished in this series 1. Privileged Anonymity: The Writings of Madame de Lafayette by anne green 2. Stéphane Mallarmé. Correspondance: compléments et suppléments edited by Lloyd James austin, Bertrand marchal and nicola Luckhurst 3. Critical Fictions: Nerval’s ‘Les Illuminés’ by meryl tyers 4. Towards a Cultural Philology by amy Wygant 5. George Sand and Autobiography by Janet hiddleston 6. Expressivism by Johnnie gratton 7. Memory and Survival: The French Cinema of Krzysztof Kiesłowski by emma Wilson 8. Between Sequence and ‘Sirventes’ by catherine Léglu 9. All Puns Intended by Walter redfern 10. Saint-Evremond: A Voice From Exile edited by denys potts 11. La Cort d’Amor: A Critical Edition edited by matthew Bardell 12. Race and the Unconscious by celia Britton 13. Proust: La Traduction du sensible by nathalie aubert 14. Silent Witness: Racine’s Non-Verbal Annotations of Euripides by susanna phillippo 15. Robert Antelme: Humanity, Community, Testimony by martin crowley 16. By the People for the People? by christopher prendergast 17. Alter Ego: The Critical Writings of Michel Leiris by seán hand 18. Two Old French Satires on the Power of the Keys edited by daron Burrows 19. Oral Narration in Modern French by Janice carruthers 20. Selfless Cinema? Ethics and French Documentary by sarah cooper 21. Poisoned Words: Slander and Satire in Early Modern France by emily Butterworth 22. France/China: Intercultural Imaginings by alex hughes 23. Biography in Early Modern France 1540–1630 by Katherine macdonald 24. Balzac and the Model of Painting by diana Knight 25. Exotic Subversions in Nineteenth-Century French Literature by Jennifer Yee 26. The Syllables of Time: Proust and the History of Reading by teresa Whitington 27. Personal Effects: Reading the ‘Journal’ of Marie Bashkirtseff by sonia Wilson 28. The Choreography of Modernism in France by Julie townsend 29. Voices and Veils by anna Kemp 30. Syntactic Borrowing in Contemporary French: A Linguistic Analysis of News Translation by mairi mcLaughlin 31. Dreams of Lovers and Lies of Poets: Poetry, Knowledge, and Desire in the ‘Roman de la Rose’ by sylvia huot 32. Maryse Condé and the Space of Literature by eva sansavior 33. The Livres-Souvenirs of Colette: Genre and the Telling of Time by anne freadman 34. Furetière’s roman bourgeois and the Problem of Exchange by craig moyes 35. The Subversive Poetics of Alfred Jarry: Ubusing Culture in the Almanachs du Père Ubu by marieke dubbelboer 36. Echo’s Voice: The Theatres of Sarraute, Duras, Cixous and Renaude by mary noonan 37. Stendhal’s Less-Loved Heroines: Fiction, Freedom, and the Female by maria c. scott www.legendabooks.com Stendhal’s Less-Loved Heroines Fiction, Freedom, and the Female ❖ Maria C. Scott Research Monographs in French Studies 37 Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge 2013 First published 2013 Published by the Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA LEGENDA is an imprint of the Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Modern Humanities Research Association and Taylor & Francis 2013 ISBN 978-1-907975-71-4(hbk) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recordings, fax or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Contents ❖ Acknowledgements ix Note on Translations x introduction 1 1 mina, Vanina, and the Logic of the strange step 12 2 mathilde and the paradox of authenticity 47 3 on not taking Lamiel seriously 83 conclusion 117 Bibliography 121 Index 129 for ciara and other much-loved daughters ACKnoWLeDGeMents ❖ if this book has taken a long time to complete, it is at least partly because i have enjoyed the journey so much. it has brought me into contact with a number of wonderful people who also happen to be outstanding stendhal scholars. i am very grateful, in particular, to Yves ansel, Xavier Bourdenet, serge Linkès, and catherine mariette for their generosity and collegiality, and to Lucy garnier and francesco manzini for being such selfless, enlightening, and sympathetic fellow travellers over the past few years; they have made me realize the great luck of the lone researcher who finds good company along the road. my debt to david scott, my most long-standing academic friend and ally, is too fundamental to repay. i am also very thankful to Barbara Wright, who has shown much kindness to me over the years, especially on the day i landed in her office with a far-fetched theory about Le Rouge et le Noir. the Legenda team, and particularly ann Jefferson, diana Knight, graham nelson, susan Wharton, and Jennifer Yee, have been extremely professional and supportive; the editorial committee, along with the anonymous reader of the manuscript, offered much wise and constructive advice. my thanks go too to Jean anderson, for her help and advice at an early stage of the project, and to susan harrow, for the university of Bristol fellowship that ensured continuity of library access during a period of transition and displacement. this project would never have got off the ground without the generous assistance of the irish research council for humanities and social sciences, which funded an entire year of research leave in 2004–2005. i am indebted to my very hardworking colleagues at national university of ireland, galway, for facilitating that period of leave as well as a year of sabbatical research in 2008. thank you to my husband, simon potter, for the time, in all senses, that he has given me. he and our children, tommy and ciara, have lived with this project for as long as they have known me. i think they will not miss it. some of the arguments made in the following chapters were previously published, in different form, in French Studies, 62 (2008), The Irish Journal of French Studies, 8 (2008), and L’Année stendhalienne, 11 (2012). thank you to the editors of these journals for their encouragement and input. all errors are, unfortunately, my own. m.c.s., Bristol, march 2013

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.