Writing the Landscape: Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815

Christie Margrave

Writing the Landscape
Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815

Christie Margrave

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23 April 2019 • 306pp

ISBN: 978-1-781887-04-2 (hardback) • RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-781884-35-5 (paperback, 13 December 2021) • RRP £13.49, $17.99, €16.49

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Women novelists were among the most popular authors of the First Republic and First Empire, yet they are frequently overlooked in favour of their canonical male counterparts. Their penchant for sentimental novels has led some later critics to take their writing at face value as apolitical and domestic, at odds with France's violent convulsions. Furthermore, their carefully crafted presentation of natural settings has, thus far, been dismissed completely. Yet, as Christie Margrave shows, the natural landscape was far from being a casually chosen backdrop for writers such as Cottin, Genlis, Krüdener, Souza and Staël. Rather, the 'escape into nature' given to their female protagonists was a means to expose and confront the everyday reality and emotional suffering faced by women in the Revolutionary decade and Napoleonic Empire. By highlighting self-expression, and by celebrating the figure of the melancholic wanderer, the social misfit, or the visionary, in the setting of an often tempestuous Nature, they also exerted substantial influence on the literary Romanticism which was soon to capture the European imagination.

Christie Margrave is a Lecturer in French at the Australian National University.

Reviews:

‘The book is meticulously researched and packed with critical responses from a variety of different fields, showing Margrave’s interdisciplinary intentions. This book opens the door for yet more focused work to be carried out on this understudied yet highly formative period in French literary and social history.’ — Stacie Allan, Modern Language Review 115.2, 2020, 470-71 (full text online)
‘Writing the Landscape’s strengths lie in its close literary analyses of lesser-known works by women... The book rightly calls our attention to a corpus of women’s writing that deserves more critical attention, and it renews our understanding of how - far from being insignificant green backdrops - landscape descriptions could serve as focal points within a novel.’ — Giulia Pacini, H-France 20, May 2018, no. 77
‘Scholars of European Romanticism have almost entirely overlooked the influence of French women writers of the First Republic and First Empire. In reaction to this oversight, Margrave's excellent monograph resituates the dominant themes of French Romanticism, firstly, as developing earlier than the 1820s and, secondly, as much more than a male phenomenon... This well-researched and beautifully written book provides fresh contributions to the fields of Women's Studies and French Romanticism by demonstrating the vital importance of these largely forgotten women writers of the First Republic and First Empire.’ — Julianna Starr, Women in French Studies 28, 2020, 147-48 (full text online)
‘Christie Margrave’s analysis of women writers’ feminist engagement with the Romantic vogue for natural landscape not only offers a fresh perspective on Romantic luminary Germaine de Staël; it also sheds light on the novels of Félicité de Genlis, Sophie Cottin, Barbara von Krüdener, and Adélaïde de Souza... This is an insightful, valuable, and timely study bound to inform and inspire future scholarship in French women’s writing of the Romantic era.’ — Laura Kirkley, French Studies 77.1, January 2023, 135-36 (full text online)

Contents:

ix-x	Acknowledgements Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.3	Cite
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xi-xi	Abbreviations, Quotations and Translations Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.4	Cite
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xii-xii	List of Illustrations Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.5	Cite
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1-42	Introduction: A Landscape of One’s Own Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.6	Cite
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43-79	Chapter 1 Landscapes of Love and Liberty: Debates Regarding Marriage Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.7	Cite
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80-116	Chapter 2 Landscapes of Loss: Communicating Maternal Grief and Guilt Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.8	Cite
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117-165	Chapter 3 Landscapes of Rebellion: Natural Madhouses Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.9	Cite
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166-202	Chapter 4 Landscapes of Autonomy and Escape: Female Power in Death Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.10	Cite
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203-243	Chapter 5 Writing the Landscape: the Ossianic North and the Debate Over Women’s Writing and Education Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.11	Cite
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244-262	Conclusion: Reclaiming A Space For Women’s Writing Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.12	Cite
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263-282	Bibliography Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.13	Cite
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283-294	Index Christie Margrave doi:10.2307/j.ctv16km1bm.14	Cite
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Bibliography entry:

Margrave, Christie, Writing the Landscape: Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815 (Legenda, 2019)

First footnote reference: ³⁵ Christie Margrave, Writing the Landscape: Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815 (Legenda, 2019), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: ³⁷ Margrave, p. 47.

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Bibliography entry:

Margrave, Christie. 2019. Writing the Landscape: Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Margrave 2019: 21).

Example footnote reference: ³⁵ Margrave 2019: 21.

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Writing the LandscapeExposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815

Christie Margrave

Writing the Landscape
Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815