Project MUSE®: Women in French Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Women in French Studies.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 1993) through current issueLatest Articles: Women in French StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Women in French Studies2166-54861077-825xLatest articles in Women in French Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983259
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It is indeed an honor for me to write my first introduction as Editor-in-Chief of Women in French Studies. Women in French as an organization has been part of my life and career for over thirty years, and I am humbled to give back as its editor. I discovered our organization as a graduate student and I never left. Many long-time WIF members share the same experience. Our journal is just one of the benefits of belonging to WIF. The profession has changed over the years, and we can still count on WIF Studies to proudly highlight the many different specializations within our field with contributors coming from all "ranks," from graduate students and independent scholars to full professors.When I came to the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallIntroduction2026-02-25text/htmlen-USIntroduction2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®153302026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25"Chevaleresse" to "Dame Amaczon": A Woman's Vision of Femininity at the Court of René d'Anjou
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983260
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The reputation of King René (1409–80) as a paragon of courtliness was ultimately established on the rapid dissemination of his treatise on tournaments through the major courts of Northern Europe. While René's re-envisioned ideal knight mustered great interest for the Early Renaissance, this paper argues that the debate on love and gendered roles animating the court of Anjou-Provence equally valued women's competency.King René's return from Italy in 1442 marked an upsurge in the court's artistic production, now refined with humanist culture. As an exemplar, legends in which heroes of both genders were entangled celebrated the interconnectedness of love and political agency in narratives that stimulated court debate.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmall"Chevaleresse" to "Dame Amaczon": A Woman's Vision of Femininity at the Court of René d'Anjou2026-02-25text/htmlen-US"Chevaleresse" to "Dame Amaczon": A Woman's Vision of Femininity at the Court of René d'Anjou2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®868662026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Causeuses, babillardes, langagieres: Nicolas de Cholières and the Worth of Women's Speech
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983261
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Numerous literary texts from early modern France purport to depict the reality of women's speech: from the late fifteenth-century Evangiles des quenouilles through to the early seventeenth-century Caquets de l'accouchée and beyond, dozens of anonymous works present themselves as verbatim transcriptions of women engaging in group conversation. Their speech is characterized within these works as chattering, babbling nonsense—hence, the caquets, babil, or badinage of the works' titles. Such works foreground voices presented as belonging to women, while at the same time mocking those women's speech as outlandish and disorderly; the (usually male) secretary character who transcribes their conversations creates satiric
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallCauseuses, babillardes, langagieres: Nicolas de Cholières and the Worth of Women's Speech2026-02-25text/htmlen-USCauseuses, babillardes, langagieres: Nicolas de Cholières and the Worth of Women's Speech2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®808802026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Sous la lune de Lesbos : Traces saphiques dans Occident de Lucie Delarue-Mardrus
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983262
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Comme le montre Joan DeJean dans Les fictions du désir, la présence de la figure de Sappho dans les lettres françaises est « continue et obsessionnelle » (8), entrelaçant la « force de sa séduction poétique [à] la menace d'une sexualité potentiellement déviante » (6). À la fin du XIXesiècle, on assite à une résurgence du mythe de Sappho. En manque d'un récit fondateur, sa figure est ouverte aux interprétations les plus disparates : soit elle est l'amoureuse de Phaon, mettant tragiquement fin à sa vie par chagrin d'amour, soit elle est la prêtresse d'Aphrodite, maîtresse de plusieurs jeunes filles avec lesquelles elle entretient des rapports homosexuels. La vie de la poétesse étant si opaque, elle est en soi un « 
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallSous la lune de Lesbos : Traces saphiques dans Occident de Lucie Delarue-Mardrus2026-02-25text/htmlen-USSous la lune de Lesbos : Traces saphiques dans Occident de Lucie Delarue-Mardrus2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®563592026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Jouer sa « dernière carte » : Transposition coloniale de l'Occupation dans Portrait de Grisélidis de Clara Malraux
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983263
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En 1945, Clara Malraux publie son premier roman, Portrait de Grisélidis. La publication de ce livre ne fut pas une évidence pour son autrice. Dans ses mémoires, elle note à ce sujet :
Lorsque je l'eus terminé – en 1942 – j'en fis parvenir un exemplaire à Blanzat, dont je connaissais l'hostilité à l'occupant sans savoir qu'elle allait déjà jusqu'à une résistance active, un autre à Seghers, qui résidait en zone sud. Tous deux l'acceptèrent. Je choisis comme éditeur le premier dont je reçus la réponse – Blanzat – et demandai, par prudence, qu'on n'envisageât la publication qu'une fois la paix venue. Moins on parlait de moi, mieux cela valait à l'époque.
(…Et pourtant 30)
Sous l'Occupation, une femme juive
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallJouer sa « dernière carte » : Transposition coloniale de l'Occupation dans Portrait de Grisélidis de Clara Malraux2026-02-25text/htmlen-USJouer sa « dernière carte » : Transposition coloniale de l'Occupation dans Portrait de Grisélidis de Clara Malraux2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®621832026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25It's in the Air: Racialized Space and the Diffuse Look from Wright to Beauvoir
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983264
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Critics have noted the mutual influence between the French existentialists and Richard Wright, who, like many Black intellectuals and artists of the pre-Civil rights era, would eventually move to France to escape America's stifling racial climate (Altman 237-50; Fabre; Gines, "Man Underground"; Marso 122-47; Miller; Mussett; Relyea; Simons 167-84).1 One can see their admiration for each other's work even in the existentialists' and Wright's publication history. On the one hand, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre's journal, Les temps modernes, would promote Wright by consistently publishing translations of his fiction and essays, starting with the short story "Fire and Cloud" in the inaugural 1945 issue and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallIt's in the Air: Racialized Space and the Diffuse Look from Wright to Beauvoir2026-02-25text/htmlen-USIt's in the Air: Racialized Space and the Diffuse Look from Wright to Beauvoir2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®905022026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Poétique de l'espace dans La honte d'Annie Ernaux
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983265
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La notion d'espace est vaste en géographie et se définit normalement par son fonctionnement et son organisation à travers des objets. En littérature, le lien entre l'être humain et l'espace est devenu un champ d'investigation majeur grâce à la géocritique, une approche qui étudie « l'espace où se déploie l'écriture » (Collot 10). Ce champ de recherche interdisciplinaire considère l'espace comme un objet dynamique et décentré, et invite à analyser les interactions entre l'espace et le texte littéraire sous un regard pluriel.Dans La honte, Annie Ernaux développe une écriture qui fait constamment référence à la ville d'Yvetot, le cadre spatial de son enfance. Les descriptions minutieuses des lieux, qui participent à
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallPoétique de l'espace dans La honte d'Annie Ernaux2026-02-25text/htmlen-USPoétique de l'espace dans La honte d'Annie Ernaux2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®675952026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Amélie Nothomb's Body Problem: Pleasure and Frustration in Robert des noms propres (2002)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983266
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In Le plaisir du texte, Roland Barthes distinguishes works that produce pleasure ("plaisir") from those that inspire bliss ("jouissance") by how they engage with the contexts—cultural and otherwise—in which they are written. He writes:
Texte de plaisir : celui qui contente, emplit, donne de l'euphorie ; celui qui vient de la culture, ne rompt pas avec elle, est lié à une pratique confortable de la lecture. Texte de jouissance : celui qui met en état de perte, celui qui déconforte (peut-être jusqu'à un certain ennui), fait vaciller les assises historiques, culturelles, psychologiques, du lecteur, la consistance de ses goûts, de ses valeurs et de ses souvenirs, met en crise son rapport au langage.
(25-26)
The texte
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallAmélie Nothomb's Body Problem: Pleasure and Frustration in Robert des noms propres (2002)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USAmélie Nothomb's Body Problem: Pleasure and Frustration in Robert des noms propres (2002)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®586702026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Ce qui aurait pu, ce qui pourrait: Photography as a medium of possibility in Annie Ernaux and Nadège Fagoo's L'autre fille (2023)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983267
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"Toutes les images demeureront," writes Michèle Bacholle. With these words, Bacholle nods to the opening lines of Annie Ernaux's chef-d'œuvre, Les Années: "Toutes les images disparaîtront" (11). Bacholle explains that "[à] qui connaît l'œuvre d'Annie Ernaux, à qui la lira, toutes ces images parlent et parleront. Toutes les images demeureront, transfigurées par la magie de l'art littéraire, déposées en nous" (9-10). Across her literary œuvre, Ernaux often frames photography as a medium capable of lending her life and experiences a sense of permanence, as well as concreteness, solidity. Scholars indeed tend to argue that Ernaux, by incorporating (ekphrastic or actual) photographs in her work, strives to find a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallCe qui aurait pu, ce qui pourrait: Photography as a medium of possibility in Annie Ernaux and Nadège Fagoo's L'autre fille (2023)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USCe qui aurait pu, ce qui pourrait: Photography as a medium of possibility in Annie Ernaux and Nadège Fagoo's L'autre fille (2023)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®672482026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25De l'androgynie à la féminitude : Une reconstruction de la représentation socioculturelle de la femme africaine dans l'œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983268
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Le XXe siècle est marqué par l'émergence de femmes africaines qui se sont engagées à la remise en question de la condition, de l'image et du rôle de la femme africaine dans la société. Ces femmes africaines se sont engagées au renversement des rôles entre sexes, à la construction des personnages féminins androgynes ou à la remise en cause de la socialisation de genre entraînant une hiérarchisation inégalitaire des rapports sociaux entre la femme et l'homme africains. Odile Cazenave indique notamment que, dans les années 1980 et 1990, « les écrivains femmes africaines ont affirmé leur présence croissante sur la scène littéraire et prouvent une approche différente des questions postcoloniales, dans leur critique
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallDe l'androgynie à la féminitude : Une reconstruction de la représentation socioculturelle de la femme africaine dans l'œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala2026-02-25text/htmlen-USDe l'androgynie à la féminitude : Une reconstruction de la représentation socioculturelle de la femme africaine dans l'œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®596732026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Du trauma originel aux traumas secondaires ou quand un trauma en cache un autre
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983269
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Gagnant du prix Goncourt en 2009, Trois femmes puissantes de Marie NDiaye regroupe trois récits qui ont en commun l'Afrique et la violence psychologique et/ou physique conduisant au trauma. Le Sénégal – pays d'origine du père de l'écrivaine mais que celle-ci ne connaitra que par le biais de séjours brefs – hante les trois récits et s'impose en dénominateur commun. Autre similitude entre ces trois nouvelles : ces récits mettent en scène des femmes. Tantôt narratrices, tantôt protagonistes ou bien les deux il s'agit avant pour NDiaye de transmettre des souffrances de femmes au lecteur qui devient témoin tour à tour des traumas de Norah, Fanta et Khady ; respectivement les personnages féminins principaux de chaque
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallDu trauma originel aux traumas secondaires ou quand un trauma en cache un autre2026-02-25text/htmlen-USDu trauma originel aux traumas secondaires ou quand un trauma en cache un autre2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®505782026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Voice of the Migrant Woman: Reading Leonora Miano's Stardust and Aminata Sow Fall's Douceur de Bercail through a Postcolonial Lens
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983270
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Migration and displacement remain some of the most urgent global realities of the twenty-first century. In his description of what he calls the "Black Atlantic" (1993), Paul Gilroy reminds us that mobility, diaspora, and forced movement are not exceptions to modernity but constitutive of it (4). Migration, whether voluntary or coerced, has long shaped the histories of Africa and its diasporas. Jacques Chevrier's notion of migritude (2004) extends this genealogy by identifying a generation of African writers whose works focus on exile, displacement, and the cultural negotiations of migration as central themes. Africa has long been referred to as a continent in motion (Mbembe 91; Sarr 42). From the transatlantic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallThe Voice of the Migrant Woman: Reading Leonora Miano's Stardust and Aminata Sow Fall's Douceur de Bercail through a Postcolonial Lens2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Voice of the Migrant Woman: Reading Leonora Miano's Stardust and Aminata Sow Fall's Douceur de Bercail through a Postcolonial Lens2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®538392026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Jaden an nou: Cultivating Knowledge Ecologies in Tropiques Toxiques
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983271
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Notre mémoire c'est aussi un jardin dans lequel on puise nombre de ressources, c'est donc un Jaden, à la fois matériel, philosophique et spirituel.Although the Caribbean is often associated with turquoise seas and swaying coconut palms, Caribbean literary and theoretical representations of nature offer a much more complex view of the local environment. While plants, animals, weather phenomena, and even the Earth itself are frequently foregrounded in Caribbean literary texts, as well as in oral literature like the contes créoles, nature is not simply a source of inspiration but rather an integral part of these works' narrative or rhetorical structure. For example, in the novel L'esclave vieil homme et le molosse
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallJaden an nou: Cultivating Knowledge Ecologies in Tropiques Toxiques2026-02-25text/htmlen-USJaden an nou: Cultivating Knowledge Ecologies in Tropiques Toxiques2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®834352026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Voicelessness from Beyond the Grave, Djebar's Neutre Féminin in La femme sans sépulture
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983272
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In Ces voix qui m'assiègent (1999), Assia Djebar draws our attention to the sonority of the French word écrivaine to highlight what is at stake for the "female-writer," even though she presents herself as écrivain. Unlike the vain in écrivain, vaine is not cut short by the nasal phoneme [ɛ̃]. The vaine is drawn out and becomes a lingering echo that takes precedence over the "neutral" écrit. As echo, it is sound without substance and as written word it is signification—vain and superficial, all of which are stereotypical, feminine qualities. To be vaine is to be ephemeral, fragile, transient, and at the limit between sound and silence, like the echo. To write vainement relates to this impossible simultaneity and to
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallVoicelessness from Beyond the Grave, Djebar's Neutre Féminin in La femme sans sépulture2026-02-25text/htmlen-USVoicelessness from Beyond the Grave, Djebar's Neutre Féminin in La femme sans sépulture2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®597662026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Christine Montalbetti : « Célébrer cette relation à deux qui se rejoue à chaque lecture »
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983273
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Christine Montalbetti est l'autrice d'une œuvre accueillante, hospitalière1, dans laquelle les adresses à la lectrice, au lecteur, abondent. Ces adresses « sont tout sauf une mise à distance du récit. Au contraire », soutient Montalbetti, « elles espèrent une proximité, un espace commun, dont elles élaborent bravement la chimère » (« Pourvu » 124). Son œuvre s'intègre, en ce sens, dans la part de la littérature actuelle où – comme la critique a pu le montrer à propos par exemple des récits d'Annie Ernaux et de Pierre Michon – l'écriture a vocation d'adresse.Parmi les romans de Montalbetti figurent Western, sorte de western à l'italienne jouant des plaisirs de la parodie, Journée américaine, une road story entre
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallChristine Montalbetti : « Célébrer cette relation à deux qui se rejoue à chaque lecture »2026-02-25text/htmlen-USChristine Montalbetti : « Célébrer cette relation à deux qui se rejoue à chaque lecture »2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®496262026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Archival Afterlives: Cixous, Derrida, and the Matter of Friendship by Laura Hughes (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984205
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How does writing live on in the archive? For Laura Hughes, writing's potential to survive after an author's death raises the attendant question, "What kind of afterlife is this?" (5). Her absorbing book illuminates the poignant friendship between Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida by painstakingly retracing, from 1990 to 2004, the protracted dialogue between the archivally–minded theorists who interrogate the material fragility and unbounded immateriality of artifacts. Hughes adroitly draws on her personal experiences with their archived work to frame the challenges one encounters when entering an archive. In short, the gaps, absences, and silences one confronts in Cixous and Derrida's print and digital archives
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallArchival Afterlives: Cixous, Derrida, and the Matter of Friendship by Laura Hughes (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USArchival Afterlives: Cixous, Derrida, and the Matter of Friendship by Laura Hughes (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®68602026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Women's Stories in Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710) by Deborah Steinberger (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984206
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What do women want? Although the question may make some readers vaguely recall the 2000 comedy starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, in reality it has much deeper, more interesting roots. Most importantly for the purposes of this review, it launches Deobrah Steinberger's multifaceted exploration of the depiction of women in her 2024 monograph, Women's Stories in Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710).Although Steinberger looks at a variety of texts by Le Mercure Galant's founder, Jean Donneau de Visé, she concentrates largely on the periodical itself, which she describes asa pioneering illustrated periodical that blended new, entertainment, and pro-Louis XIV propaganda, while covering a vast range of topics, from science
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallWomen's Stories in Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710) by Deborah Steinberger (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USWomen's Stories in Le Mercure Galant (1672-1710) by Deborah Steinberger (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®68192026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25A Waltz by Lynda Chouiten (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984207
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A Waltz is the translation of an Algerian novel by Lynda Chouiten. The original French text, entitled Une Valse, was translated from French to English by Skyler Artes. This review is of the English translation, which is highly readable and flows smoothly in the English language.The story line can be summarized as follows: Chahira is an Algerian seamstress approaching the age of 40. Her fiancé is Mohand, a mysterious artist. They live in the tiny village of El Moudja where Chahira has spent most of her life. Mohand hasn't gone to school, making him quite sensitive and lacking in confidence. He speaks only in Kabyle, and appreciates simplicity and good sense. Chahira tries to encourage Mohand's artistic pursuits. We
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallA Waltz by Lynda Chouiten (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USA Waltz by Lynda Chouiten (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®56762026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Sprites of Kernosy Castle by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau Murat, Countess de (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984208
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Gethner and Stedman, who previously gave us the first English translation of the Countess de Murat's A Trip to the Country (Wayne State University Press, 2011), now bring readers the first-ever English edition of her second and final novel, The Sprites of Kernosy Castle (1710). Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, Countess de Murat (1688–1716), was a French author and salonnière descended from some of the most distinguished noble families in France. She is best known for her leisure novels, pseudo-memoirs, and fairy tales, which often questioned the social norms of her day—particularly those that constrained women through forced marriages, limited education, and their use as socioeconomic pawns. Her subversive narratives
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallThe Sprites of Kernosy Castle by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau Murat, Countess de (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Sprites of Kernosy Castle by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau Murat, Countess de (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®66822026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Making Waves: French Feminisms and Their Legacies 1975–2015 ed. by Margaret Atack et al. (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984209
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This collection emerged from a 2015 Women in French UK conference that marked the publication, forty years prior, of Les Femmes s'entêtent, an eclectic, influential feminist anthology prefaced by Simone de Beauvoir and released by Gallimard at the height of France's Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (MLF). Making Waves follows a companion volume, French Feminisms 1975 and After: New Readings, New Texts (2018), also comprised of selected conference papers and edited by Margaret Atack, Alison S. Fell, Diana Holmes, and Imogen Long. While the first volume focuses on 1970s French feminists' literary output and its reverberations across subsequent decades, the second addresses what contributor Lyn Thomas terms "the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallMaking Waves: French Feminisms and Their Legacies 1975–2015 ed. by Margaret Atack et al. (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USMaking Waves: French Feminisms and Their Legacies 1975–2015 ed. by Margaret Atack et al. (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®75972026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Redécouvrir Louisa Siefert (1845–1877) : Richesse d'une œuvre de femme à l'ère de la modernité by Aimée Boutin, Adrianna M. Paliyenko, et Catherine Witt (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984210
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Voici un ouvrage dont l'objectif est double, comme l'explique Catherine Witt dans son Introduction : d'une part, il fait le point sur l'état de nos connaissances sur Louisa Siefert à la lumière des archives ; d'autre part, il en révèle l'œuvre dans son intégralité. Louisa Siefert, célèbre en son temps puis par la suite tombée dans l'oubli, fut lyonnaise comme Louise Labé, admirée par Rimbaud comme Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, et comme toutes deux, poète, malgré l'avis de Mallarmé qui considérait la poésie comme « un art traître au sexe » (Œuvres complètes, 875). Morte très jeune, de tuberculose, elle fut cependant aussi romancière, philosophe, voyageuse, biographe, mémorialiste et auteure de comédies. Le présent
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallRedécouvrir Louisa Siefert (1845–1877) : Richesse d'une œuvre de femme à l'ère de la modernité by Aimée Boutin, Adrianna M. Paliyenko, et Catherine Witt (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USRedécouvrir Louisa Siefert (1845–1877) : Richesse d'une œuvre de femme à l'ère de la modernité by Aimée Boutin, Adrianna M. Paliyenko, et Catherine Witt (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®90872026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Gender in French Banlieue Cinema: Intersectional Perspectives ed. by Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard, and Habib Zanzana (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984211
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In this valuable collection of academic reflections, editors Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard, and Habib Zanzana present a richly interdisciplinary book. Gender in French Banlieue Cinema offers a range of perspectives that are intersectional and multifaceted, drawing from social sciences, performing arts, gender and race studies, migration, and ethnic relations—all within contemporary France.The book's opening section contains articles focused on intersectional approaches to Banlieue cinema. These offer frameworks for examining issues such as racism, freedom of religion, and social stigma in the analysis of films like Regarde-moi (2007) by Audrey Estrougo and Bande de filles (2014) by Céline Sciamma. Brett Bowles
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallGender in French Banlieue Cinema: Intersectional Perspectives ed. by Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard, and Habib Zanzana (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USGender in French Banlieue Cinema: Intersectional Perspectives ed. by Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard, and Habib Zanzana (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®76502026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Reimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau's Works ed. by Lisa Connell and Delphine Gras (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984212
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Lisa Connell and Delphine Gras have assembled an essential volume with a global scope that examines the evolving and sometimes ambiguous manifestations of resistance in the works of acclaimed writer Gisèle Pineau. This collection makes a substantial contribution to studies on the author, offering timely commentary on Pineau's prolific corpus—from her inaugural short story "Paroles de terre en larmes" (1988) to Ady, soleil noir (2021). By tracing mutable modes of resistance across historical, social, literary, and spatial dimensions, this volume (re)establishes Pineau's position as a pivotal voice in contemporary Francophone literature.The book's thoughtful structure brings together diverse scholars who engage with
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallReimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau's Works ed. by Lisa Connell and Delphine Gras (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USReimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau's Works ed. by Lisa Connell and Delphine Gras (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®91112026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Touching Beauty: The Poetics of Kim Thúy ed. by Miléna Santoro and Jack A. Yeager (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984213
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To date, Touching Beauty. The Poetics of Kim Thúy is the first collection of scholarly essays devoted to the entirety of the body of works by the Vietnameseborn Quebec writer. One of the best-known French-language writers of the first generation of the Vietnamese Canadian diaspora, Kim Thuy was born in Saigon in 1968, left Vietnam with the boat people at the age of ten, and arrived as a refugee in the 1970s in Quebec, where she settled with her family. Besides being a best-selling author, Kim Thuy is a lawyer, restaurateur, and host of a television show, La Table de Kim, where guests discuss current events while eating. She has seven books to her name, including a cookbook. Her novels have been awarded literary
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallTouching Beauty: The Poetics of Kim Thúy ed. by Miléna Santoro and Jack A. Yeager (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USTouching Beauty: The Poetics of Kim Thúy ed. by Miléna Santoro and Jack A. Yeager (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®60802026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Anna de Noailles: Auteure de la Belle Époque, Actrice de la Modernité ed. by Kirsten Von Hagen and Jana Keidel (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984214
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This French and German dual-language collection of twenty-two essays on the life, work, and legacy of Anna de Noailles is a welcome addition to scholarship on the lesser-known Modernist French poetess. Published by the German academic imprint Rombach Wisssenschaft, Anna de Noailles: Autorin der Belle Époque, Akteurin der Modernen (Anna de Noailles: Auteure de la Belle Époque, Actrice de la Modernité) attempts a holistic look at Anna de Noailles' place (or lack thereof) in the French canon. Three thematic sections interact with the image, perception, and reception of Anna de Noailles, her lyricism, and her lasting impression on French letters: First, as salonnière in the tradition of Germaine de Staël, Juliette
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallAnna de Noailles: Auteure de la Belle Époque, Actrice de la Modernité ed. by Kirsten Von Hagen and Jana Keidel (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USAnna de Noailles: Auteure de la Belle Époque, Actrice de la Modernité ed. by Kirsten Von Hagen and Jana Keidel (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®70122026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Arab Women's Revolutionary Art: Between Singularities and Multitudes by Nevine El Nossery (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984215
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The book by Nevine El Nossery documents Arab women's socio-political engagement through the artistic medium in light of the discontent that continues to run through Africa and the Middle East after the uprisings of 2010-2012. The author's overarching argument is that female artists use their creativity as an expression of resistance and dissent that goes beyond national borders. Women's singular experiences become intertwined and create a multitude through what she defines as "feminist artivism" (9).In the first section of the book entitled "Visualizing the Revolution," El Nossery examines graffiti and murals by Egyptian street artist Bahia Shehab. In her many artistic endeavors such as the famous graffiti series
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallArab Women's Revolutionary Art: Between Singularities and Multitudes by Nevine El Nossery (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USArab Women's Revolutionary Art: Between Singularities and Multitudes by Nevine El Nossery (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®66562026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Épître posthume, d'Ibn al-Khatib à Ibn Khaldoun by Rajae Benchemsi (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984216
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L'idée qu'un condamné à mort ne perçoive que le passé est une profonde intuition que Rajae Benchemsi explore dans Épître posthume, d'Ibn al-Khatib à Ibn Khaldoun. Dans cet ouvrage Benchemsi incarne l'un des penseurs les plus éminents du monde musulman, plongeant dans l'intimité des derniers jours d'Ibn al-Khatib. À travers le prisme atypique de l'épître – un genre peu abordé dans la littérature contemporaine – Benchemsi imagine les mots, les pensées et les réflexions qui auraient pu émaner de la cellule d'Ibn al-Khatib à Fès, suite à son procès pour hérésie. Son crime ? Composer, à la demande du sultan, Le Jardin de la Connaissance du Noble Amour, un traité sur l'amour divin. Alors qu'il traverse ses derniers
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallÉpître posthume, d'Ibn al-Khatib à Ibn Khaldoun by Rajae Benchemsi (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USÉpître posthume, d'Ibn al-Khatib à Ibn Khaldoun by Rajae Benchemsi (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®60492026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Nécessaires Détours/Necessary Detours by Évelyne M. Bornier (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984217
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Dix ans après la publication de son premier recueil de poésie Derniers Remparts/Last Ramparts (2013), Évelyne M. Bornier nous interpelle et nous sert de guide dans sa nouvelle parution, Nécessaires Détours/Necessary Detours (2023). Bornier, professeure de français à l'Université d'Auburn et récipiendaire de L'Ordre des francophones d'Amérique, nous propose un voyage poétique dans son troisième recueil de poésie bilingue, dans lequel nous sommes des vagabonds d'amour. Dans une introduction intitulée « Avertissement », Bornier annonce, en traversant le cadre interprétatif, un voyage intime et brut, vécu par un moi sensible, exposé et vulnérable. Son écriture explore les quatre points cardinaux où se dessinent
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallNécessaires Détours/Necessary Detours by Évelyne M. Bornier (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USNécessaires Détours/Necessary Detours by Évelyne M. Bornier (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®68232026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Retour à Ceuta et Melilla by Mame Diarra Diop (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984218
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Depuis bientôt une vingtaine d'années, Mame Diarra Diop est journaliste et spécialiste en communication avec un intérêt particulier accordé aux questions de mutations, migrations et gouvernance. Après la publication de plusieurs nouvelles, elle signe avec Retour à Ceuta et Melilla son premier roman. Diop nous offre un récit d'un réalisme déconcertant, empreint d'une profonde sensibilité et d'analyses critiques des migrations clandestines africaines. Comme on peut s'y attendre, son étoffe de journaliste influence largement cette œuvre, rédigée sous la forme d'une enquête journalistique romancée, qui plonge les lecteurs dans le périple de quatre jeunes Sénégalais qui quittent Dakar pour tenter leur chance en Europe.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallRetour à Ceuta et Melilla by Mame Diarra Diop (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USRetour à Ceuta et Melilla by Mame Diarra Diop (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®92382026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Le harem du roi by Amadou Amal Djaïli (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984219
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L'espace sahel demeure le point d'ancrage privilégié des énigmes qu'offre à lire le Goncourt des lycéens 2020. J'ai nommé Djaïli Amadou Amal. Sa nouvelle parution romanesque s'inscrit dans cette perspective spatiale bien que l'intrigue se fixe dans le microcosme spatial du Lamidat d'une communauté peule, espace imaginaire dans le nord du Cameroun. La fresque romanesque relate les tensions entre l'ambition et la tradition ainsi que la tradition et la modernité. Alors médecin officiant à Yaoundé, capitale politique du Cameroun, Seini, fils de Lamido, est choisi par ses pairs et pères (37) pour succéder à son oncle. Cependant, sa volonté de diriger les hommes se heurte au refus catégorique de son épouse Boussoura qui
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallLe harem du roi by Amadou Amal Djaïli (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USLe harem du roi by Amadou Amal Djaïli (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®75422026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25La prophétie de Dali by Balla Fofana (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984220
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Balla Fofana, fils d'une femme de ménage analphabète mère de huit enfants, est journaliste de profession à Libération, conférencier en sciences politiques à Columbia University, co-auteur d'un livre avec le danseur Bolewa Sabourin, La rage de vivre (2019), et a récemment publié son œuvre autobiographique La prophétie de Dali (2023).Dans cette œuvre, il tisse un récit d'une richesse exceptionnelle, à la fois intime et universel, où les figures féminines jouent un rôle clé dans la construction d'un univers narratif profondément touchant. Situé dans le contexte des diasporas africaines en France, le roman, relaté par un enfant, est traversé par des interrogations sur l'exil, l'appartenance et le devoir de garder
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallLa prophétie de Dali by Balla Fofana (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USLa prophétie de Dali by Balla Fofana (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®96582026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Notes on Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984221
<p></p>
Josiane Banini is a Visiting Assistant Professor of French Studies at Smith College where she is on the faculty of the Department of French Studies. She is a member of the African Literature Association, Women in French, and the American Association of Teachers of French. She is treasurer of the ALA Francophone Caucus (FRACALA). Her publications include articles, book chapters, and book reviews on Sub-Saharan African literature and cultures that have appeared in The French Review and Journal of the African Literature Association. Her current project has resulted in a series of articles on women and the exploration of identity in African literature and cultures.Cecilia Beach is Professor emerita of French at Alfred
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/591/image/coversmallNotes on Contributors2026-02-25text/htmlen-USNotes on Contributors2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®138222026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25