Description
Book SynopsisWhile homosexual men are legion in the history of French literature and criticism, until now no critic writing in French or English has given the same sort of attention to lesbians. Waelti-Walters covers two hundred years of fiction, beginning with the publication of Diderot''s The Nun in 1796 and ending with present-day lesbian writers Jocelyne François, Mireille Best, Hélène de Monferrand, and the authors connected to Geneviève Pastre''s lesbian publishing house. While she deals with renowned authors such as Violette Leduc and Monique Wittig, including their respective literary and personal relationships with Simone de Beauvoir and Hélène Cixous, many of the writers discussed will be unknown to most readers. Their novels vary from the extraordinarily powerful to the utterly trite; by providing the first comprehensive guide to this body of work Waelti-Walters sheds light on French literary and cultural history. Waelti-Walters shows how the l
Trade Review"Damned Women is an inspiring and enlightening book, a must for anyone interested in the challenging and intriguing role lesbians play as a symbol through which women, as a gender, are culturally feared, despised, and valued. It is a gripping account of the origin of the lesbian as a literary character in French fiction since Diderot's La Religieuse and analyses brilliantly the mix of cliche, censorship, fascination, and desire that go into the creation of lesbian characters." Nicole Brossard
