Roman féminin et condition féminine de Mary Wollstonecraft à Mary Shelley

Women's fiction and the condition of woman from mary wollstonecraft to mary shelley

• Auteur / Autrice : Christine Hivet
• Direction : Alain Morvan
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Études anglaises
• Date : Soutenance en 1993
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Littérature -- Femmes écrivains

Femmes -- Dans la littérature

Résumé

A une epoque ou florissait le roman feminin et ou la condition feminine posait des problemes de plus en plus aigus, mary wollstonecraft choisit d'exprimer dans le roman les revendications de a vindication of the rights of woman. Oeuvres pleines d'horreur et de pathos, mary et the wrongs of woman reclamaient ainsi pour la femme le droit au divorce et a l'amour. Certaines de ses contemporaines eurent le courage de suivre mary wollstonecraft et de faire elles aussi un sombre tableau de la realite de la condition feminine. Toutes les femmes etaient cependant loin de partager cette sympathie pour mary wollstonecraft. Detestant tout ce que representait cette derniere, des auteurs comme hannah more mirent donc en scene des heroines wollstonecraftiennes destinees a etre punies par la justice poetique. Le statu quo faisait en revanche l'objet de tous leurs eloges au prix meme de la dynamique romanesque. Une generation plus tard, mary shelley publiait frankenstein. Apparemment sans importance, la femme n'etait cependant pas absente de l'oeuvre de la fille de mary wollstonecraft. Peut-etre est-ce en partie a cette indirection que mary shelley dut sont succes litteraire. D'autres romancieres parvinrent a faire reconnaitre plus ou moins vite leur talent, telles fanny burney, maria edgeworth, ann radcliffe ou jane austen. Si elles aussi s'en remirent a la strategie de l'indirection, leur succes n'en constitua pas moins un grand pas en avant pour le sexe feminin.

At a time when women's fiction was flourishing and when the condition of woman caused increasingly acute problems, mary wollstonecraft chose to express in the novel the same message as in a vindication of the rights of woman. Works which were full of horror and pathos, mary and the wrongs of woman promoted the right to divorce and love for women. Some of ther contemporaries had the courage to follow in her steps and like her to portray a sombre picture of a woman's life. However, not all women were sympathetic towards mary wollstonecraft's views. Hating everything which she stood for, some authors like hannah more created wollstonecraftian anti-heroines who were destined to be punished by poetic justice. On the other hand, they were full of praise for the status quo, even at the expense of the dynamics of their novel. A generation later, mary shelley published frankenstein. Apparently without importance, woman is however not absent from the works of mary wollstonecraft's daughter. Perhaps mary shelley owes her success partly to this indirection. Other novelists, such as fanny burney, maria edgeworth, ann radcliffe or jane austen, managed to have their talent more or less quickly recognised. If they as well adopted the strategy of indirection, their success however was a significant step forward for the female sex.