Untold rural bodies: Reimagining the power of femininity in Méraville’s forgotten writings.
Marion Krauthaker
MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities (2024), pp. 31-40, doi:10.59860/wph.a6986db
Click cover to enlarge | A contribution to: Writing the Body Edited by Rachel Hayes and Caitlin Sturrock MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 19 Modern Humanities Research Association Abstract. This article delves into the literary legacy of Marie-Aimée Méraville (1902–1963), a recently rediscovered rural French writer, focusing on her efforts to bring marginalised representations of rurality and the feminine body into visibility. Contrary to regionalist trends coming from more urban writers, Méraville authentically portrays the language, environment, and people of the neglected North Cantal in a way that challenges conventional depictions of rustic life. Her counter-narratives vividly depict the Cantal’s landscapes, characters, and cultural identity, advocating for a region overlooked by urban elites. She presents the area as a centre of diverse knowledge, cultural richness, and economic activity, thereby challenging narratives marginalising rural communities (Ponton, 1977). Significantly, Méraville’s portrayal of rural femininity hints at an early form of ecofeminism (Merchant, 1980; Shiva, 1988), providing a voice for rural women and emphasising feminine bodily experiences as an alternative mode of being. Méraville’s oral style incorporates local dialects and not only becomes an authentic voice for these bodies, but also serves as a political tool for resistance and cultural preservation (Lafont, 1997). Her female characters actively engage with the environment, establishing an intimate knowledge through physical contact with the land as embodied subjectivities (Ponty, 1945). Drawing on the politics of locatedness (Rich, 1984), the article demonstrates how Méraville’s descriptions reject objectification, intertwining the physicality of women with the land and highlighting the marks of life and work on their bodies. Ultimately, the article positions Méraville’s work as an early contribution to ecological literature, offering unique representations of rural femininities and contributing to transregional endeavours to redefine the cartography of the rural while challenging narrow perceptions of rural bodies, particularly the feminine. Full text. This contribution is published as Open Access and can be downloaded as a PDF, or viewed as a PDF in your web browser, here: |
