Women and literature
In A Room of One’s Own (1929), Virginia Woolf writes that “a woman must have some money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, trans. Clara Malraux, 2016: 8 ). This observation sums up what the British author develops in the rest of her essay: the conditions limiting women’s access to the literary field throughout history. Deprived of financial autonomy and a room – or a place – of their own, in other words, of time and availability of spirit, women could not devote themselves to writing or creation. And for those who did, it was often a struggle. Admittedly, times have changed, and today’s women no longer face as many obstacles as George Sand did in the 19th century or the Greek poetess Sappho did two and a half thousand years ago. But as in other areas of social and political life, there is still a long way to go for women writers. To better grasp contemporary issues, we need to consider this path in the light of history.
In 2021, the fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage will be celebrated throughout Switzerland. The University of Lausanne’s Centre interdisciplinaire d’étude des littératures (CIEL) and Centre de traduction littéraire (CTL) are joining in by devoting their Fall 2021 public course to the issues raised by the presence (or absence) of women in literature. In conjunction with this course, entitled “Women in Literature”, we offer a selection of works by women authors in the spotlight, as well as works exploring women’s relationship to writing and the place of women in literary histories. Discover this thematic selection in the Renouvaud catalog, as well as the physical exhibition on the Unithèque site from September 27 to October 8, 2021.
Women’s presence and absence
The thematic selection also resonates with BCUL’s Manifestations culturelles 2021 program, which gives pride of place to women creators. The work of French-speaking Swiss author Alice Rivaz (1901-1998) is the focus of an exhibition on the Riponne site until October 30, 2021, curated by Valérie Cossy, professor of gender studies at the UNIL Faculty of Arts, who invites us to consider the use of the concepts of women, feminism and gender in literary criticism. In several of her texts, Alice Rivaz “stages the slow progression of women towards a new, full and subversive participation in the practical, political and symbolic aspects of human life”. Crossing geographical borders and temporal barriers, the eight sessions of the “Women in Literature” public course are designed to reveal this “slow progression” and to trace and clarify the contours of plural and diverse literary histories, all marked by the presence-absence of women.
From Sappho to Rosie Pinhas-Delpuech
In many respects, the Lesbian poetess Sappho (7th-6th centuries B.C.) is the pioneer of women’s literature. She stands as an exception, even if it’s likely that many other ancient Greek voices have been silenced and have not come down to us. Sappho’s verses had a major influence on subsequent centuries, particularly in the Middle Ages. During this period, writing, though initially reserved for religious circles, gradually became emancipated, allowing the works of secular clergywomen to flourish, including Christine de Pizan, Marguerite de Navarre and Louise Labé.
This process of emancipation does not follow the same contours on every continent. It varies according to literary and artistic cultures, as well as political and religious contexts. In Japan, for example, women’s prose reached its apogee in the 10th and 11th centuries, with Le Dit du Genji attributed to Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973-c. 1014 or 1025). Some pre-modern Eastern texts were written by courtesans, such as the bhajans – mystical devotional songs – by the Hindu poetess Mīrā Bai (c. 1498-v. 1546).
French literature of the Ancien Régime, and especially the theatrical genre, is saturated with settings and depictions of women. But for Molière and his colleagues, they were often no more than objects of laughter – as in Les Femmes savantes (1672). History has erased the subjects, the women playwrights, or confined them to genres deemed minor. Female novelists of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries suffered a similar fate, often having only two alternatives: write under a male pseudonym or publish under the names of male third parties, which in both cases deprived them of their auctoriality.
For many women of letters, translation has been a refuge and a field where their legitimacy was not constantly challenged. Women translators have played – and continue to play – an essential role in the transmission and mediation of literature, and several of the lectures in the public course will seek to demonstrate this. On October 20, 2021, two female translators, the Franco-Turkish Rosie Pinhas-Delpuech and the French-speaking Camille Logoz, will discuss their careers and experiences.
Women and literature, women in literature
The thematic selection, like the public lecture, could have been entitled “Women and Literature”. In fact, this is the title chosen for the two volumes making up the course. Women and literature. A cultural history (2020). To date, this is the most comprehensive French-language academic survey of the presence of women in literature, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. It was directed by Martine Reid, professor emeritus at the University of Lille, who will give a lecture in the Aula of the Palais de Rumine on October 13, 2021: “Une femme qui écrit” : quelques observations sur les femmes en littérature”. She herself, borrowing an expression from George Sand, seems to prefer the expression “femme qui écrit” (woman who writes) to “écrivaine” or “autrice” (writer), and to the separation induced by the connector “et” in “femmes et littérature” (women and literature) to the inclusion of “en” in “femmes en littérature” (women in literature). The aim is to embrace in a single gesture texts by women and texts about women, women in texts and at the origin of texts. It’s also about breaking free from a narrow conception of literature to consider literatures in all their diversity and richness, as Virginia Woolf called for as long ago as 1929:
“That’s why I’d like to ask you to write books of all kinds without hesitating before any subject… no matter how trivial or extensive. […] Because books influence each other, so to speak. Coming face to face with poetry and philosophy will make fiction better. Moreover, if you look closely at any of the great figures of the past, Sapho, Lady Murasaki, Emily Brontë, you will see that she is at once heiress and pioneer, and that she came into the world because women had arrived at the habit of writing naturally, so that any literary activity, even as a prelude to poetry, would be invaluable to you.” (Woolf, Une chambre à soi,trans. Clara Malraux, 2016: 163-164 )
