Foreword

Women In French Studies Foreword This is Hie fourth volume of Women in French Studies. We continue to grow: in tire number of submissions, in the number of candidates for the Graduate Student Essay Prize, and also, as a result, in the size of the editorial board. For next year, we have chosen a theme: Les Femmes et l'Espace. The section on this theme will be edited by Bénédicte Mauguière. We hope this theme may inspire essays, dealing with any century or any literary genre or cultural area. Essays not treating of this theme will also, however, be given consideration. Choosing the Graduate Student Essay Prize was a difficult task this year. The editorial board would like to cite the following essays for honorable mention: Karina Eileraas, Northwestern University, "Body, tongue, lips: Problematics within 'embodied' postcolonial writing." Heather Lynn Fudge, University of Toronto, "L'autobiographe-femme et le personnage de fiction dans les Mémoires de Simone de Beauvoir." Brigitte Martin, University of Texas at Austin, "Manifestations and Effects of Transvestism in Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin's Mémoires du Comte de Comminge." Kathleen Scarlett, University of Toronto, "Femmes en mouvement . . . loin de la lumière du 'Red Arrow Motel'." Rachel Sauvé, also University of Toronto, "L'imposteur, le marquis, la poétesse: sexe fictif et genre véritable au coeur d'une supercherie littéraire." The prize essay this year is "Aux antipodes de l'exotisme, ou l'envers de la carte postale dans l'oeuvre de Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska," by Thérèse MigraineGeorge . She is studying Comparative Literature and French at the University of Colorado. My wannest thanks go to the members of the editorial board, who have worked with enthusiasm, made many valuable suggestions to help the essayists, and helped me with my work. Special thanks go to Colette Hall, president of Women in French and now the managing editor of Women in French Studies, whose work for the past two years established us on a firm footing, and whose advice and practical assistance have been invaluable. We are grateful to LJrsinus College for its continuing financial support for our journal. This year I would also like to thank Dean Ronald Johnstone and Provost Warren Vander Hill, of Ball State University, for their support. In addition I want Adèle King2 Women In French Studies to thank Heather Murray, my student assistant in the spring semester of 1996; Molly Dasher, Mindy Metzger and especially Basil H. ??-Arrayed of Limited Edition, the student group of Ball State's School of Journalism, for arranging the page layout; Jesse Smith of Ball State's Women and Gender Studies, for designing our advertisement, which will appear in the journals that are advertising in this volume; and Valory Wessels, who works on the journal as an Undergraduate Fellow of the Ball State Honors College. Women in French Studies is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, which also has provided useful information. Adèle KingBall State University ...