Women’s Lives in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature

The essays in this volume provide an overview and critical account of prevalent trends and theoretical arguments informing current investigations into literary treatments of motherhood and aging. They explore how two key stages in women’s lives—maternity and old age—are narrated and defined in fictions and autobiographical writings by contemporary French and francophone women. Through close readings of Maryse Condé, Hélène Cixous, Zahia Rahmani, Linda Lê, Pierrette Fleutieux, and Michèle Sarde, among others, these essays examine related topics such as dispossession, female friendship, and women’s relationships with their mothers. By adopting a broad, synthetic approach to these two distinct and defining stages in women’s lives, this volume  elucidates how these significant transitional moments set the stage for women’s evolving definitions (and interrogations) of their identities and roles.  

“In this critically sophisticated and often moving book, the editors have collected essays by critics who take us to Mauritius, Canada, Guadeloupe, France, Algeria, Vietnam, and the Ivory Coast, to explore motherhood, non-motherhood, writing, mortality, and enduring friendships in innovative ways. A must-read for all of us whose lives as women intersect with an academic career in the reading and teaching of literature.”  (Valérie Loichot, Professor of French and English, Emory University, USA )

“This timely and cogent work is sure to be consulted extensively by current and future researchers, especially since experiences of aging, elder care, and end of life decisions are of increasing relevance to feminist writers and their readers. The level of scholarship is outstanding.” (Roseanna Dufault, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Emerita, Ohio Northern University, USA)

“In drawing special attention to representations of key stages in the life-course, and the defining tasks, challenges, and constraints associated with these stages, this book makes an invaluable contribution to research in women’s writing.” (Karin Schwerdtner, Professor of French, Western University, Canada) 

Florence Ramond Jurney is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Gettysburg College, USA. She has published two critical monographs: Voix/es libres: Maternité et identité féminine dans la littérature antillaise (2006) and Representations of the Island in Caribbean Literature: Caribbean Women Redefine their Homelands (2009).  She also coordinated a special issue of Nouvelles études francophones on Gisèle Pineau’s work (2012).

Karen McPherson is Professor of French at the University of Oregon, USA. She is the author of two critical monographs: Incriminations: Guilty Women/Telling Stories (1994) and Archaeologies of an Uncertain Future: Recent Generations of Canadian Women Writing (2006). She is also a poet and literary translator.