Author: Jenene J. Allison
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874135664
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
In fact, her originality extends far beyond this scale. Charriere's novels not only work with literary conventions, they work on these conventions. For example, the figure of the heroine, plotted according to a standard plot line, serves at a more complex level to undermine the image of woman embedded in the heroine. Most telling are heroines plotted in the context of the French Revolution; they reflect the repressive image of woman that would emerge from the combination of republican ideology with the growing emphasis on maternalism. Surprisingly modern in this regard, these novels confirm recent interpretations of the gendering of the social sphere after the Revolution.