Masculin/Féminin dans la poésie et les poétiques du XIXe siècle by Christine Planté (review)

1 22Women in French Studies Christine Planté, Dir. Masculin/Féminin dans la poésie et les poétiques du XIX" siècle. Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2002. ISBN: 2-72970719 -0. Pp. 517. Price unlisted. It is difficult to overemphasize the relevance of this collection of thirtyfive essays for scholars of nineteenth-century poetics or for critics interested in the complexities of gendered discourse. These articles are the harvest of a colloquium Planté organized at Lyon in 1998. The majority of contributors are scholars in French university faculties; some are from American universities . A complete index of names follows the texts. The introduction by Planté gives a comprehensive overview ofthe scope of the articles, contained in five sections which cover chronologically the pre-Romantic period to the turn of the twentieth century. The essays focus on the engendrement de l 'écriture in poetics. The feminization of the authorial voice, its manipulation and praxis, is a crucial factor in many of the articles. Planté, in her introduction, promotes Baudelaire as the innovator ofa new poetics which is at a variance from the Romantic éternelféminin. Several articles devoted to Baudelaire imply the contradictions inherent in his poetics. Martine Reid in her "Misogynie de Baudelaire," identifies a symbiosis between his violent signifying system and his poetics. His virilization of the idéal féminin is the focus for Marie-Pierre Chabanne's article. Alain Vaillant underscores a lyricism of the obscene in Baudelaire's "Une Charogne." I will comment briefly on other articles I consider particularly compelling . Christine Planté addresses a conundrum in "Quand je est un(e) autre" where she observes Mallarmé's blurring of a clear feminine identity in "Hérodiade," even as he appropriates the feminine voice to narrate the poetic enterprise itself. Several articles attempt to define how the romantic authors identify the poetic Muse, eschewing her association with the classical allegorical figures in favor of a more varied identity. Often the Muse expresses through the poeticy'e an elegiac feminine voice, as José-Luiz Diaz discloses in his article on Chateaubriand's Atala, "Avatars de la Muse . . . romantique." In the case of Desbordes-Valmore, she is the femme poète whose compassion is acclaimed and whose poignant lament Aimée Boutin, in her article on the poetess , compares to Lamartine's social discourse. Both poets identify with the Mater Dolorosa, an aesthetic icon of the Catholic revival during the Restoration . Marceline Desbordes-Valmore develops this motif in skillfully crafted imagery. Moreover, the feminine voice in the poems conforms to the stereotype of the generous but self-abnegating woman. How was the writing oít\\efemmes poètes critiqued in the nineteenth century ? Thierry Poyet, in his essay on the "Lettres de Flaubert à Louise Colet . . ." testifies to the demeaning treatment of Colet by Flaubert as he corrected her writings. Since he considered poetry as an exclusively male domain, he was more ofan obstacle to her than a counselor. Consequently, according to Poyet, her writing never received an audience, and today this woman of the Parisian literary milieu is known primarily for her liaison with the novelist. Book Reviews123 Throughout much of the century it was considered hazardous for a woman's feminine reputation to undertake serious writing, especially with the goal ofpublication. This risk is aptly illustrated by Marie-Claude Shapira in her article on the careers ofAmable Tastu and Delphine Gay. Both romantic poets aspired to fame and at first realized publication and renown. Later Delphine Gay incurred the critic's wrath for her "virility." Amable Tastu, despite the favor of Sainte-Beuve, also grew disillusioned and abandoned her poetic vocation. Barbel Plötner, in her article on the literary début of Elisa Mercosur, traces a similar scenario for this provincial poetess who enjoyed early fame in her native Brittany yet failed to achieve a lasting reputation when she attempted to live by her pen in Paris, where her poetry was treated as the tepid œuvre of a naïve girl. Michèle Fontana's essay ". . . Louise Ackerman face à Ia critique" explores the innovations of a serious poet who was first maligned for her atheism and later for supposedly dissimulating her sex by composing philosophical...