Description
Book SynopsisWhy was Violette Leduc''s 1954 novel ThZr_se et Isabelle not published in its entirety until November 2000? Under threat of scandal and obsenity charges, French publisher Gallimard withheld the novel, but Leduc continued to write of her life as a woman writer in wartime Paris, frankly depicting her own and imagined lesbian experiences. Mentored by Simone de Beauvoir and a contemporary of French twentieth-century luminaries Sartre, Camus, Genet, and Cocteau, Leduc is, however, known best as France''s great unknown writer. In The Pleasures of the Text, Elizabeth Locey restores Leduc to her rightful place in the canon, bringing to light her singular and important contributions to contemporary literary theory. Locey reads Leduc''s works from the perspective of reader seduction, which erodes the divide between body and text. Situating Leduc within a continuum with Emma Bovary and Roland Barthes at its extremes, Locey investigates Leduc''s use of the erotic touch, look, and voice to seduce her readers. More than an accessible introduction to an overlooked writer, The Pleasures of the Text confronts and challenges the philosophical debate between pornography and erotica and pins down some of the often slippery ways pleasure is mapped onto the body of the reader.
Trade ReviewIn her timely, accessible study, Locey examines the narrative and stylistic strategies Vilette Leduc employs in her works to reach, if not seduce, her reader emotionally an dpsychosomatically and thereby actualize her own salvation through literature. . . this volume should renew interest in Leduc. * The French Review *
The Pleasures of the Text is a quite original and interesting study, which will make a significant contribution to the field of Leduc scholarship. The line and focus it takes is new. . . . It will appeal to, and be of great use to, undergraduate and postgraduate readers alike, as well as Leduc scholars and devotees of Leduc's work—it has a sustained theoretical base but is highly accessible. -- Alex Hughes, University of Birmingham
Table of ContentsPart 1 Of Reader Seduction Chapter 2 The Seductions of Reading: "Emma Bovary and Roland Barthes" Chapter 3 Cycles of Seduction I: Violette Leduc, Reading, and Writing Chapter 4 Cycles of Seduction II: René de Ceccatty and Michele Zackheim Part 5 Seducing the Reader Chapter 6 Jeux Interdits: Reading Leduc's Erotic Touch Chapter 7 Through the Looking Glass: Reading Leduc's Erotic Look Chapter 8 Invitation au Voyage: Reading Leduc's Erotic Voice Chapter 9 Conclusion Chapter 10 Appendix
