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Sexuality and Corporeality In the Work of Annie Ernaux, Nancy Huston and Nelly Arcan Polly Galis Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies September, 2018 - ii - Intellectual Property and Publication Statements The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Polly Galis to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2018 The University of Leeds and Polly Galis - iii - Acknowledgements I would firstly like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Diana Holmes and Dr. Claire Lozier, for going beyond the call of duty in terms of academic and practical provision: marking countless thesis and article drafts, and offering reassurance and advice during regular bouts of doubt. In the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, my sincere thanks go to Karen Priestley for being everyone’s main source of support, Prof. Margaret Atack and Prof. Ros Brown-Grant for guiding me out of my ‘theoretical quagmire’, and Prof. Alison Fell for helping me secure an Associate Fellowship of the HEA and acting as my internal examiner, alongside Prof. Shirley Jordan from the University of Newcastle. I am hugely indebted to both for reviewing my thesis and conducting my viva examination. I would also have been unable to conduct my research were it not for the Leeds 110 Anniversary Research Scholarship, and am ineffably grateful for the opportunity. As for extra-curricular engagements, I am thankful to staff at IREF, UQAM (especially Lori Saint-Martin for the warmest of welcomes), who allowed me to participate in their symposium at ACFAS 2016 and to publish in their peer-reviewed journal. I also reserve special thanks for co-editors of Sexual/Textual Boundaries (2020), Dr. Kate Averis, Dr. Eglė Kačkutė and Catherine Mao for including my article, as well as the IAWIS, CCWW, WIF and CIEF networks for permitting me to present my research at their (bi)annual conferences. On a personal note, I am indebted to Dr. Maria Tomlinson and Dr. Antonia Wimbush, with whom I am proud to have organised Imagining the Body in France and the Francophone World and to be editing an issue forthcoming with L’Esprit Créateur. Our WhatsApp conversations have been a grounding force for many months. I finish, inevitably, with family and friends: mum, for offering a million helping hands, lifts, teas, nests and more, big mum for supplying daily gossip and epistoleric treats during my hermit phase, Louis for warding off signs of over- seriousness, Nicolas for always lending a remarkably patient ear and for his arborescent analogies, Marie-Pier for delivering herself and other Canadian delights across the Atlantic, and the Grimthorpe girls for making my years at Leeds such happy ones. - iv - Abstract This thesis discusses the representation of sexuality and corporeality in the work of Francophone authors Annie Ernaux, Nancy Huston and Nelly Arcan, including a range of genres and drawing from their earliest publications to the most recent. It takes as its main objects of study the female body, and women’s sexual development, experience and pleasure. In order, it examines the authors’ perspectives on the following issues: dominant sexual discourses (mostly pornography and the media), sexual difference, the sexual representation of others (especially prostitutes and porn-stars), women’s writing and the body politic. As the first comparative study of its kind, this thesis sheds light on the largely unexplored similarities between these authors’ works, as well as their relevance to contemporary women’s writing in French and to feminism more generally (despite evidence to the contrary). It asks: How is women’s sexuality informed by dominant sexual discourses, and in what ways do the authors proffer a productive counter-narrative? How do they understand the gendered nature of women’s situation, and to what extent do they resist or reinforce this? And how far does this extend to all women? Indeed, how do the authors represent other women in the first place? Finally, how do they define the body, and what is the relationship between the multiple bodies inside and outside of the text (including the authors’ own)? By responding to these questions, this thesis reveals how Ernaux, Huston and Arcan’s writing operates unrelentingly in the interest of female sexual and corporeal desire, remaining sensitive to the differences between women’s backgrounds and experiences. In so doing, it concludes that their literature constitutes an innovative and important blueprint for more nuanced representations of feminine identity that, despite conflicting appearances, constitute a potent force against patriarchal systems and misogynist dogma. - v - Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................... iii Abstract ....................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................ v List of Figures ............................................................................................ vi Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Nuanced Alternatives to Dominant Sexual Discourses........ 19 1.1 Sexual, Textual Encounters in Ernaux’s Ce qu’ils disent ou rien, Mémoire de fille and L’Usage de la photo ........................... 19 1.2 ‘Good Sex, Bad Sex’ in Huston’s Mosaïque de la pornographie and Infrarouge ............................................... 38 1.3 (Hyper)Conformity as Counter-Narrative in Arcan’s Folle and A Ciel ouvert ................................................ 53 Chapter 2 Sexual Difference, Friend and Foe ......................................... 77 2.1 Class and Sexual (R)evolution: From Les Armoires vides, La Femme gelée and L’Evènement, to Ernaux’s Erotic Triptych ...... 79 2.2 Rethinking Reflets dans un œil d’homme: Reparatory Love and Fiction in Huston’s L’Empreinte de l’ange and Une Adoration ..................................................................... 95 2.3 Abjection and the Feminine Condition in Arcan’s Putain and Burqa de chair ......................................... 119 Chapter 3 Me, Myself and I: The Problem of Speaking for Others ...... 143 3.1 ‘Non-lieux’ in Ernaux’s Journaux extimes ................................... 145 3.2 Speaking to Others in Huston’s Danse noire and Dolce agonia ............................................................................... 158 3.3 Productive Egotism vs. Paternalist Pity in Arcan’s Putain and Paradis, clef en main............................... 175 Chapter 4 Corps and Corpus ................................................................. 188 4.1 Cutting Truths in Ernaux’s Journaux réfléchis ............................ 190 4.2 Mus(e)ing, Musical and Magical Bodies in Huston’s Poser nue and Instruments de ténèbres ........................... 207 4.3 Arcan’s Arcanes ......................................................... 234 Steady Wins the Race ............................................................................. 258 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 270 - vi - List of Figures 1. Dans le couloir (28) ............................................................................... 29 2. La Chaussure dans le séjour (58) ........................................................ 30 3. Bruxelles, hôtel des écrins, chambre 125 (154) .................................. 31 4. Chambre, matin de noël, suite (177) .................................................... 33 5. Dernière extase (front cover) ................................................................ 49 6. Hante-moi, hante-moi encore (front and back covers) ..................... 215 7. D’Après Mapplethorpe 5 (22-23) ......................................................... 218 8. Callas dans jardin rouge (1); Tulipes (8); Sternum 1 (27); Callas (63) .................................................................................................... 219 9. Nelly Arcan, auteure du livre Putain; Interview Up and Down de Nelly Arcan; Baise Majesté; Tout le monde en parle ................... 236 10. Interview Up and Down de Nelly Arcan ........................................... 239 11. L’Off Story; A Vélo dans le Red Light; La Cuisine du livre; Breast Yourself ................................................................................ 240 12. Putain; Folle; Points .......................................................................... 242 13. Pisser dans tous les coins; Bob est snob; Faire la Job; Sarkozy et viagra ............................................................................. 243 - 1 - Introduction Contemporary women’s writing in French across the Francophone world is as vast in scope as it is in volume, and numerous specialists within the field have identified the difficulty inherent in mapping shared practices and outlooks. Texts differ drastically in terms of thematic content, regional context,