Representations of Menstruation, Childbirth, and the Menopause in Contemporary Women’S Writing in French

The Female Fertility Cycle in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Representations of Menstruation, Childbirth, and the Menopause in Contemporary Women’s Writing in French PhD in French Studies Department of Modern Languages and European Studies Maria Kathryn Tomlinson March 2018 1 Declaration: I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. MARIA KATHRYN TOMLINSON 2 Abstract This thesis examines the representation of the female fertility cycle in contemporary Algerian, Mauritian, and French women’s writing. It focuses on menstruation, childbirth, and the menopause. This study frames its analysis of contemporary women’s writing by looking back to the pioneering work of the second-wave feminists. Second-wave feminist texts were the first to break the silence on key aspects of female experience which had thus far been largely overlooked or even considered too taboo to mention. Over forty years since the publication of Annie Leclerc’s Parole de femme, this thesis seeks to determine the extent to which more recent representations reveal a different perspective from second-wave feminist texts. Second-wave feminist works have been criticised for applying their ‘universal’ theories to all women, regardless of their ethnicity, class, or sexuality. In response to this criticism, this thesis asks as one of its central research questions whether women’s writing in French still represents female bodily experience as ‘universal’. Or, reflecting criticism of such universalising views, this thesis evaluates whether contemporary women’s writing exposes differences between women’s experiences that were overlooked in second-wave feminist texts. The cross- cultural and interdisciplinary approach is informed not only by critics of the second-wave feminist movement but also by sociological and anthropological studies which consider how women’s bodily experiences are shaped by cultural context. Contemporary authors whose novels are explored in this thesis include Maïssa Bey, Leïla Marouane, Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, Virginie Despentes, 3 and Marie Darrieussecq. This study reveals that each literary culture frames its representation of the female fertility cycle in its own distinct cultural context. Overall, this thesis argues that contemporary women’s writing has continued the challenge against normative perceptions of the body that was originally launched by the second-wave feminists, whilst also illustrating that female bodily experience is diverse. 4 Contents Acknowledgments p. 7 Introduction p. 9 0.1 Two generations: the second-wave feminists and the emerging women writers of the 1990s 0.2 Methodology and research questions p. 14 0.3 The representation of female bodily experience in second-wave feminist works p. 16 0.4 Criticism of second-wave feminist texts p. 29 0.5 Current scholarship within the field of contemporary women’s writing in French p. 41 0.5.1 Current scholarship which explores the representation of menstruation in contemporary women’s writing in French p. 49 0.5.2 Current scholarship which explores the representation of childbirth in contemporary women’s writing in French p. 51 0.5.3 Current scholarship which explores the representation of the menopause in contemporary women’s writing in French p. 54 0.6 Media coverage of menstruation and the menopause p. 57 0.7 Chapter synopsis p. 60 Chapter One: Menstruation p. 64 1.1 Introduction 1.2 The representation of menstruation in the works of Julia Kristeva, Annie Leclerc, Marie Cardinal and Christine Delphy p. 66 1.3 Anthropological and sociological research on menstruation p. 76 1.4 The representation of menstruation in Algerian women’s writing p. 81 1.5 The representation of menstruation in Mauritian women’s writing p. 105 1.6 The representation of menstruation in women’s writing from France p. 123 1.7 Conclusion p. 144 Chapter Two: Childbirth p. 149 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The representation of childbirth in the works of Julia Kristeva, Annie Leclerc and Marie Cardinal p. 152 2.3 Anthropological and sociological research on childbirth p. 159 5 2.4 The representation of childbirth in Algerian women’s writing p. 165 2.5 The representation of childbirth in Mauritian women’s writing p. 184 2.6 The representation of childbirth in women’s writing from France p. 202 2.7 Conclusion p. 222 Chapter Three: The Menopause p. 227 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The representation of the menopause in the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Marie Cardinal, Annie Leclerc, and Julia Kristeva p. 230 3.3 Anthropological and sociological research on the menopause p. 236 3.4 The representation of the menopause in Algerian women’s writing p. 244 3.5 The representation of the menopause in Mauritian women’s writing p. 255 3.6 The representation of the menopause in women’s writing from France p. 272 3.7 Conclusion p. 291 Conclusion p. 295 Bibliography p. 309 6 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to say an enormous thank you to my parents who have encouraged me across the entirety of my PhD. I could not have completed my thesis without your unwavering support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I owe a debt of gratitude to my supervisors Prof Julia Waters and Dr Siobhan Shilton for their dedication and reassurance. I wish to thank my colleagues who have supported me in my professional development. I would like to extend my thanks to Prof Susan Harrow and Dr Marjorie Gehrhardt in particular. I also would like to say thank you to Helen and Nicky at the Graduate School who have been a smiling and encouraging presence throughout my PhD. Of course, this entire PhD would not have been possible without the scholarship awarded to me by the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership of the AHRC. Thank you for your support of my project. Next, I would like to thank my friends who have kept up my spirits for all of these years. Thank you to my Derby friends, my fellow PhD students at the Reading Graduate School and from across the SWWDTP, FISHJAMZ, the Banterre gang, my Greek friends, my fellow Chelsea fans, and many others. You are too many to name but I would like to give a special mention to some of my oldest and dearest friends: Emma (fig1), Nikki, Harriet, Emma (Poppet), Zena, Sophie P, Pav, and Leopold. I would also like to extend my thanks to Antonia and Polly. Our Whatsapp conversations during our organisation of “Imagining 7 the Body in France and the Francophone World” gave me much needed motivation. A final thank you goes to the undergraduate students on my course “Introduction to Francophone Literature of the Maghreb”. It has been a pleasure to share my doctoral research with you and see your growing enthusiasm for the subject. I would like to conclude these acknowledgments with an extract from a poem written by my favourite poet, Constantine Cavafy. In my opinion, his poem “Ιθάκη” most wonderfully captures a person’s journey from the beginning to end of a PhD “Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη, να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος, γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις […] Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε. Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα, ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.”1 This thesis is dedicated to my father and mother. 1 ‘As you set out for Ithaka / hope the voyage is a long one/ full of adventure, full of discovery […] And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. / Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,/ you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean’. Translation taken from C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems (1992), Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. 8 Introduction 0.1 Two generations: the second-wave feminists and the emerging women writers of the 1990s The female fertility cycle has long been the subject of feminist writing and remains today a central concern of women’s literature in French.2 The second- wave French feminist movement, which was at its peak in the 1970s, was unprecedented in its exploration of aspects of female bodily experience which previous writers considered too taboo to discuss. Writers such as Annie Leclerc, Julia Kristeva, Marie Cardinal, and Christine Delphy broke this silence by drawing attention to experiences such as menstruation, childbirth, and the menopause, which had, so far, been largely overlooked. Within French studies, these are the theorists to whom scholars often turn first when analysing the portrayal of female bodily experience within francophone culture.3 Forty years have now passed since many of these influential works were first published, and therefore the time has come to revisit the ideas articulated by the second- 2 In the context of this thesis, the female fertility cycle refers to menstruation, childbirth, and the menopause. 3 Throughout this thesis the word ‘francophone’, always with a small ‘f’, will be employed to refer to all literature in the French language, including that of mainland France. This term is therefore being used in a way that postcolonialist Patrick Corcoran defines as an uncomplicated ‘linguistic term […] generally understood as a mere synonym for “French speaking”’ (2007, p. 6). As Corcoran explains in great detail, the term ‘Francophone’ is highly problematic because it has ‘been invested with a range of additional ideological and political meanings’ (Corcoran: 2007, p. 7). The term has two distinct definitions. If we consider it in terms of literature, it is either used with imperialist undertones to refer to France as the centre upon which other literatures in French are constructed, or as a way of contrasting French- language literature produced in France with that produced outside France, often implying that the latter is inferior to the former.

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