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French Erotic Fiction: Women's Desiring Writing: 1880-1990
This fascinating study explores the pleasures and torments of love and sexuality as depicted in the works of six important French women writers: Rachilde, Colette, Leduc, Wittig, Cixous and Duras. Historically, erotic literature has been dominated by male writers. Feminist critics have argued that its central motifs of voyeurism, sadomasochism, incest and violence to women's bodies are governed by the unconscious fantasies and prejudices of a patriarchal sociocultural order.
The contributors question how this sociocultural order has affected the erotic writing of the women writers studied. They explore the opportunities for, and constraints on, women's erotic writing in the early to mid-twentieth century through the works of Rachilde, Colette and Leduc. This is contrasted with the writing of prominent contemporary authors -- Wittig, Cixous and Duras -- to reveal new developments and diversification within the genre. The focus throughout is on how these writers deal with erotic language and rhetoric, their treatment of traditional themes of eroticism, and -- most vital to recent feminist criticism and theory -- their vision of the female body and women's sexual pleasure. The book provides key insights into the development of women's erotic discourse throughout this century and the diversity that characterizes it.
The contributors question how this sociocultural order has affected the erotic writing of the women writers studied. They explore the opportunities for, and constraints on, women's erotic writing in the early to mid-twentieth century through the works of Rachilde, Colette and Leduc. This is contrasted with the writing of prominent contemporary authors -- Wittig, Cixous and Duras -- to reveal new developments and diversification within the genre. The focus throughout is on how these writers deal with erotic language and rhetoric, their treatment of traditional themes of eroticism, and -- most vital to recent feminist criticism and theory -- their vision of the female body and women's sexual pleasure. The book provides key insights into the development of women's erotic discourse throughout this century and the diversity that characterizes it.
191 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1996
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April 5, 2025
I am always trying to chase the high of finding Daughters of Darkness in Oxfam books, and I think I may have finally found something to rival it. By which, of course, I mean Anna found it so thank you very much to Anna for both knowing my interests and pointing this one out to me. I love Daughters of Darkness so much because I think it a really fascinating books that explores lesbianism/vampires/feminism through an erotic lens, and it really does come up a lot both in my brain and in conversation. French Erotic Fiction I think will very rapidly gain a similar level of notoriety in terms of how much I bring it up, if not more. Already I have multiple times this week in unrelated conversations said, "Oh! That reminds me of French Erotic Fiction".
So, ok, why is this? First of all, this book was fucking awesome. Just, as a reading experience, I really really loved it - I've barely read ANYTHING all year because I've been horribly busy, but this was so engrossing that I ended up really entranced reading it, and it made a great carrot to make me complete my uni work ("Just 35 minutes more of crypto then I can read more french erotic fiction!"). I bought a pack of pencils and carried one tucked within the creamy white leaves of the book, a sharp-ended instrument of potential, ready to splash my mark across the pages. By which I mean, there was so much interesting stuff and good lines that I really couldn't keep reading it until I had a pencil and could highlight good stuff and make comments. So, yeah, great book in general. But the subject matter itself is really fascinating.
I have, unfortunately, procured myself the reputation of Person Who Buys Erotica at Oxfam. This is, of course, because I keep doing so, so I suppose it's fair enough. Anyway I always fear this makes me sound like a weird creep, but it really is just a subject I find really fascinating, and I think there's so much that can be explored & revealed about the author & society & in fact the reader through erotic fiction. Which, clearly, the academics in this book agree with, thank god. This book is a collection of essays on French women's writings from 1880 through to the 1990s, when this was originally published. I think that erotic fiction is a really great way to look at historical context in France during this period, women's experiences of sexuality, discussion of taboo subjects. To be able to even begin to discuss sexuality, we have to discuss gender, the patriarchy, domination/submission, women's rights, and so much more. Judith Butler shows up in almost every single essay, which is great because I love them. It's just, a really really cool collection of essays on French writers who I had largely heard of but didn't know much about their writings themselves. I love the critical eyes that the academics take to them, dissecting the works to pick up on threads of sadomasochism (lots), lesbianism (lots), love (not so much), etc.
It's incredibly hard to summarise my thoughts, so I think I'll stop there. Each essay was really an explosion of fascinating things to unpick, from thoughts on the way language defines relationships to the intertwining of the self & other to the exploration of relationships outside of the norm. I thought it was all really genius and fairly accessibly written too, given I have only a GCSE knowledge of French that I've not topped up nearly enough. This has also provided a great reading list of texts to read (in translation). I'll say, Wittig definitely excites me the most (peep the additions to my to-read list...) but there's a lot else that interests me too.
Will having read this make me much more annoying? It's definitely possible. I've got a lot more ammunition to discuss objectification, desire, repression, and so much more. Whether you believe this to be a positive or not probably depends on whether you're on the receiving end ;)
So, ok, why is this? First of all, this book was fucking awesome. Just, as a reading experience, I really really loved it - I've barely read ANYTHING all year because I've been horribly busy, but this was so engrossing that I ended up really entranced reading it, and it made a great carrot to make me complete my uni work ("Just 35 minutes more of crypto then I can read more french erotic fiction!"). I bought a pack of pencils and carried one tucked within the creamy white leaves of the book, a sharp-ended instrument of potential, ready to splash my mark across the pages. By which I mean, there was so much interesting stuff and good lines that I really couldn't keep reading it until I had a pencil and could highlight good stuff and make comments. So, yeah, great book in general. But the subject matter itself is really fascinating.
I have, unfortunately, procured myself the reputation of Person Who Buys Erotica at Oxfam. This is, of course, because I keep doing so, so I suppose it's fair enough. Anyway I always fear this makes me sound like a weird creep, but it really is just a subject I find really fascinating, and I think there's so much that can be explored & revealed about the author & society & in fact the reader through erotic fiction. Which, clearly, the academics in this book agree with, thank god. This book is a collection of essays on French women's writings from 1880 through to the 1990s, when this was originally published. I think that erotic fiction is a really great way to look at historical context in France during this period, women's experiences of sexuality, discussion of taboo subjects. To be able to even begin to discuss sexuality, we have to discuss gender, the patriarchy, domination/submission, women's rights, and so much more. Judith Butler shows up in almost every single essay, which is great because I love them. It's just, a really really cool collection of essays on French writers who I had largely heard of but didn't know much about their writings themselves. I love the critical eyes that the academics take to them, dissecting the works to pick up on threads of sadomasochism (lots), lesbianism (lots), love (not so much), etc.
It's incredibly hard to summarise my thoughts, so I think I'll stop there. Each essay was really an explosion of fascinating things to unpick, from thoughts on the way language defines relationships to the intertwining of the self & other to the exploration of relationships outside of the norm. I thought it was all really genius and fairly accessibly written too, given I have only a GCSE knowledge of French that I've not topped up nearly enough. This has also provided a great reading list of texts to read (in translation). I'll say, Wittig definitely excites me the most (peep the additions to my to-read list...) but there's a lot else that interests me too.
Will having read this make me much more annoying? It's definitely possible. I've got a lot more ammunition to discuss objectification, desire, repression, and so much more. Whether you believe this to be a positive or not probably depends on whether you're on the receiving end ;)
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