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In Her Own Fashion: Marie De Gournay 'In Her Own Fashion': Marie de Gournay and the Fabrication of the Writer's Persona Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Ring Freeman, Wendy Lynn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 04:50:19 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194459 ‘IN HER OWN FASHION’: MARIE DE GOURNAY AND THE FABRICATION OF THE WRITER’S PERSONA by Wendy Lynn Ring Freeman __________________________ Copyright© Wendy Lynn Ring Freeman 2007 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN FRENCH In the Graduate College of THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2 0 0 7 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Wendy Lynn Ring Freeman entitled ‘In Her Own Fashion’: Marie de Gournay and the Fabrication of the Writer’s Persona and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _____________________________________________________Date: April 1, 2007 Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard _____________________________________________________Date:April 1, 2007 Reginald McGinnis _____________________________________________________Date: April 1, 2007 Elizabeth Chesney Zegura Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. _____________________________________________________Date: April 1, 2007 Dissertation Director: Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Wendy Lynn Ring Freeman 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The majority of this dissertation was accomplished in Fairbanks, Alaska in conjunction with trips to Tucson, Arizona and to Paris, France. As such, throughout its different stages I depended on the input and support of many people. Above all I want to thank my parents, husband and children who all participated in this project. Their understanding and help cannot be overstated. I wish to express my profound gratitude to Professor Lise Leibacher for reintroducing me to Marie de Gournay. Professor Leibacher’s vast knowledge of this period, women’s writing and cultural studies, in general, is matched by her generosity and commitment to her students and their own successes. She has been the most inspirational mentor any student or friend could wish to have and I will be forever grateful for her work on my behalf. I want to acknowledge Professors Elizabeth Zegura and Reginald McGinnis who both served on my comprehensive exam and dissertation committees. Their positive attitudes and encouragements during coursework and evaluations, combined with concise, insightful critiques, instilled a greater sense of rigor in my approach to literary analysis. I am very fortunate to have had such a dedicated, collaborative committee. I would also like to recognize Linda Dols and Deborah Knutsen respectively from the interlibrary loan departments at the University of Arizona at the University of Alaska. Their interest and responsiveness in my requests for sometimes obscure texts played an essential part in the completeness of my references and in my meeting deadlines. 5 DEDICATION For my parents, Terry and Ellen, who put me on the right path and for Chloé, Tatyana, Jessie-Lee and Madeleine who have been lighting the way ever since. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION: “SES OUVRAGES NE SONT PLUS LUS DE PERSONNE”.. 11 CHAPTER 1 GOURNAY’S SELF-FASHIONING OR LES ENJEUX DU JE................................ 32 BIRTH OF LA FILLE D’ALLIANCE .............................................................................. 32 Essais, hysteria and the taking of “Gournay”............................................... 33 Parallel agendas in Bien-venue de Monseigneur le Duc d’Anjou.................. 34 Pretexts for texts in Le Promenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne..................... 36 TRANSGRESSING CIVILITY: “LES CERVEAUX IMBECILES” ......................................... 42 Defending the Ancients against toute la bande ............................................. 45 Transcending tradition: Egalité des hommes et des femmes and Grief des dames....................................................................................... 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS..................................................................................... 51 The copy is the original: Copie de la vie de la Demoiselle de Gournay ....... 55 Virtue and vices: Pincture de moeurs............................................................ 68 Triple Bind: Apologie pour celle qui escrit .................................................. 78 Social intercourse and “pièces de circonstance” ........................................... 94 Outburst of temper: the 1595 preface to the Essais....................................... 98 CHAPTER 2 MYSTIFICATION AND THE MISE EN SCÈNE OF GOURNAY........................ 105 PUBLIC DISCIPLINING AND THE LA DEFENCE DES PERES JESUITES ........................ 106 Damoiselle Carabine.................................................................................... 119 L’Eminentissime Cardinal Du Perron and the “stroller”............................. 121 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued PARODIES IN POETRY AND PROSE .......................................................................... 124 Saint Amant’s “Poët crotté”......................................................................... 125 Rien propre pour l’amour: Mainard’s “Contre une dame”.......................... 129 An ancient muse .......................................................................................... 135 Gournay’s slippers and Maillet’s boots ....................................................... 136 FARCES AND THE FRENCH ACADEMY..................................................................... 139 “La Pucelle, cette sçavante damoiselle” : Ménage’s Requête ..................... 140 The “vieille folle” of Gaillard’s Monomachie............................................. 143 Words nursed with mother’s milk: Sorel’s Rôle des présentations............. 149 “Allez-vous-en ailleurs”: Saint Évremont’s Comédie des Académistes...... 150 CHAPTER 3 NOVUM MONSTRUM: MYSTIFICATION BY (RE)MYTHIFICATION ............ 158 CORRESPONDENCE ................................................................................................. 161 Pasquier’s “belle catastrophe” ..................................................................... 161 Balzac and the art of eloquent degradation.................................................. 165 Conspiratorial overtones.............................................................................. 175 Jean Chapelain’s “irréconciliable ennemie de l’écorcheuse Académie”..... 180 “ILLUSTRIOUS” WOMEN AND THE WEIGHT OF HABITUS ........................................ 187 Marolles’ and Sorel’s memories of cette bonne fille................................... 188 Hilarion de Costes’ “oracle”........................................................................ 191 Marguerite Buffet’s flawed copy................................................................. 193 Jean de la Forge’s “Sçavante Geminie”: the Other circle........................... 194 Verbal dexterity and Jacquette Guillaume’s taming of “savants”.............. 198 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued HONORS UPON DYING: VENTRILOQUY AND THE MANIPULATION OF VOICE .......... 201 Guillaume Colletet’s “sibyl”........................................................................ 206 Pelletier’s monument of “estime publique”................................................. 207 Le Vayer’s epitaphs: the alliance of phyical and spiritual beauty............... 208 Pallas, borne of Montaigne.......................................................................... 211 CHAPTER 4 THE CONSECRATION AND DESECRATION OF GOURNAY AS LITERARY PRODUCT......................................................................................... 217 READING BAYLE AND MORÉRI: MARGINALITY AS CENTRAL .................................. 217 Situating Gournay........................................................................................ 220 Du Perron’s “sanglant outrage”................................................................... 223 Insulting “notre pucelle”.............................................................................. 225
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