La violence de l'Heptaméron de Marguerite de Navarre: Une quéte proto-existentialiste du personnage féminin

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2009-08

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Abstract

The tales of Marguerite de Navarres Heptaméron depict a world filled with violence, particularly noticeable in the lives of their female characters. The ubiquitous nature of this violence evokes a seeming lack of freedom in female characters existence, as they are almost all victims of some form of violence, echoing the problematic nature of their often one-sided and stereotypical representation in literature from the medieval period through the time in which Marguerite was writing. As such, this study seeks to demonstrate that through the use of various manifestations of violence, physical, ocular, structural and dialogical, the Heptaméron turns the readers attention toward the condition of female characters and reveals what will be defined as a proto-existentialist reevaluation of their previous representations in an attempt to redefine her in a more accurate fashion.

In order to conduct this research and define the scope of its proto-existentialist terms, this study will use the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre outlined in his L’être et le néant. The analysis of this work will consist of three components. First, this research will examine the consequences of physical violence, in this case attempted rape, committed against female characters in the fourth and tenth novellas, which lead to their acts of bad faith and seeming incapacity to act freely. Next, it will study the violent nature of the gaze of the Other as it appears in tales forty-three, sixty-two, and thirty-two, which also victimizes the female characters and calls into question their liberty to act according to their own will. Finally, it will analyze the violent nature of the narrative structure and verbal violence through debate and conflict among the narrators, les devisants, concerning the qualification of female characters nature and roles. In addition, this study will show that the resulting conflict is liberating, rather than limiting, as it breaks with previous literary tradition in an attempt to free female characters from their typical representations. These female characters, like woman herself, cannot accurately be represented by any single classification or definition, giving the author greater license in how female characters can be portrayed, a technique reminiscent of Sartreâs idea of the individuals liberty to choose how to define him or herself.

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Keywords

Le traitement du personnage feminin, La violence, I'existentialism, Sartre, Jean-Paul, Navarre, Marguerite de, L'Heptameron

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