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From muse to militant: Francophone women novelists and surrealist aesthetics

Harsh, Mary Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1199254932

Abstract Details

2008, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, French and Italian.
In 1924, André Breton launched the Surrealist movement in France with his publication of Manifeste du surréalisme. He and his group of male disciples, prompted by the horrors of World War I, searched for fresh formulas for depicting the bizarre and inhumane events of the era and for reviving the arts in Europe, notably by experimenting with innovative practices which included probing the unconscious mind. Women, if they had a role, were viewed as muses or performed only ancillary responsibilities in the movement. Their participation was usually in the graphic arts rather than in literature. In later generations, francophone women writers began to develop Surrealist strategies for enacting their own subjectivity and promoting their political agendas. Aside from casual mention, no critic has formally investigated the surreal practices of this company of francophone women authors. I examine the literary production of seven women from three geographic regions in order to document the enduring capacity of surrealist practice to express human experience in the postcolonial and postmodern era. From the Maghreb I analyze La Grotte éclatée by Yamina Mechakra and L'amour, la fantasia by Assia Djebar, and from Lebanon, L'Excisée by Evelyne Accad. These novelists represent mental and physical trauma and fragmentation of male/female relationships in times of combat. Célanire, cou-coupé by Maryse Condé and Pluie et vent sur Télumée miracle by Simone Schwarz-Bart illustrate how Antillean literature reflects the oral traditions, supernatural beliefs and heterogeneous cultural inheritance of its peoples. Both Jovette Marchessault’s visionary novel, La mère des herbes, which draws upon her autotchonous heritage and lesbian orientation, and Anne Hébert’s Les Enfants du sabbat, sabotage the paternalistic domination of the English-speaking Canadian government and the Catholic Church which relegated women to the role of reproductive automatons. This dissertation charts the evolution of francophone women’s involvement with Surrealism from its inception, when they played only the passive, objective role of Muse, to the middle of the Twentieth Century when women writers became active militants for equal rights while expanding the definition of surreal practice.
Danielle Marx-Scouras (Advisor)
275 p.
Andr&233; Breton; Surrealist movement; Surrealism; francophone women writers; Yamina Mechakra; La Grotte &233; clat&233; e; Assia Djebar; L'amour, la fantasia; Evelyne Accad; L'Excis&233; e; Combat trauma; Maryse Cond&233;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Harsh, M. A. (2008). From muse to militant: Francophone women novelists and surrealist aesthetics [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1199254932

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Harsh, Mary Anne. From muse to militant: Francophone women novelists and surrealist aesthetics. 2008. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1199254932.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Harsh, Mary Anne. "From muse to militant: Francophone women novelists and surrealist aesthetics." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1199254932

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1199254932
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© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.