Giraudox's Salvific Heroine: Protofeminist or Housewife?

This article examines the characteristics and ambiguities of the Giralducian salvific heroine in Giraudoux's little-known theoretical work about women, La Française et la France, and in Bella and La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu. It seeks to ascertain whether Giralducian heroines are proposed as protofeminists or as traditional images of womanhood and whether it is appropriate to consider Giraudoux as a feminist sympathiser.