Feminism, Parody, and Characterization in Prévost: The Example of the Doyen de Killerine

Fem inism , Parody, andonmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA C haracterization in Prevost: The Exam ple of the Doy e nd e Kille rine C A R O L L A Z Z A R O -W E IS Atte mptsto d e te rmine conne ctionsb e twe e n e volvingfe malelite rarypor­ traits in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and either changing atti­ tudes towards females or possible counterparts of these females in society are often frustrated by the lack of sociological data, the proven discrep­ ancy between womans prestigious place in literature and her suppressed legal and social status, and the vexed problem in general of determining to what extent literature can be said to reflect 'real life." The recent impor­ tant studies by Ian Maclean and Noemi Hepp concerning fictional repre­ sentations of women in the seventeenth century emphasize the debt these many fictional representations owe to the rapidly increasing number of progressive moralist literature and feminist tracts.1 From these discursive writings many authors derived the various commonplaces and arguments they used to depict their female figures; thus a link is to be established between evolving literary portraits and new attitudes towards women. In­ deed literary types such as the fem m e hero'ique, la precieuse, the honnete fem m e among others have been traced to such writings.2 However, feminist ideas are never accepted directly into literature. They must first undergo the shaping force of genre. For example, both Maclean 143 144 / LAZZARO-WEIS and Hepp describe how the important type of the RQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA fem m e hero'ique found in tragedy and tragi-comedy is a literary adaption of the fem m e forte found in feminist writings, especially those of Le Moyne and Du Bose. When this type reappears in the rom an hero'ique, such as those of La Calprenede and especially Mile de Scudery, her heroic and outstanding qualities have been even further adjusted and domesticated so as to fit in with the long narratives concerned with love and the goal of marriage. The resoluteness of the fem m e forte becomes the stoic control of love which is her primary reason for existence. Female heroism is thus defined through restraint and through her silent mediation or suffering for the man she loves. The abil­ ity of women to think and decide for themselves, in contrast to the male characters who, in the face of adversity, sink into lethargy and despair, is also a consistent trait and convention in the rom an hero'ique. However there the use of feminine cunning or guile (froda) is honourable since it is used to help or avenge the honor of the loved male.3 The eighteenth century witnessed a breakdown in many traditional genres and the formation of new mixed ones. Patrick Coleman argues that this breakdown was accompanied by significant changes in the concept of char­ acter which, by mid-century, still did not designate the dramatic figure itself but referred only to basic tendencies expressed through a personnage . In Abbe Mallet's article on character written for the Encyclopedie, it is still recommended that a character represent one dominating passion so as to impose some unity on the personnage.4 Mallet was speaking pri­ marily of the theatre. In prose fiction characterization seems to lie some­ where between definition through commonplaces about moral or social status, which allows the incorporation of many contemporary ideas and theories in the narratives, and a more psychological wholeness, a charac­ teristic of the nascent novel genre. Despite the breakdown in genre, much of the prose fiction in the early part of the eighteenth century, especially that of Prevost, was still largely under the influence of the romance, a tradition going at least as far back as the Ethiopica of Heliodorus and C litopho and Leucippe of Achilles Tatius , among others. The ancient romances were the primary literary shap­ ing force in the rom ans heroiques, especially those of Mile de Scudery who proclaimed Heliodorus as her master. These works were enjoying a glorious literary comeback in the 1720s and 30s and were greatly ad­ mired by Prevost who claimed to be following this tradition in writing C...