The problematics of gender specificity in Sarraute's Enfance, Yourcenar's Quoi? L'eérniteℓ́and Desvignes's Le Grain du chanvre ou l'histoire de Jeanne

This dissertation explores the problematics of gender specificity in three twentieth-century French women writers' works in which there is a strong female protagonist. These works are Nathalie Sarraute's Enfance, Marguerite Yourcenar's Quoi? L'éternité, and Lucette Desvignes's Le Grain du chanvre ou l'histoire de Jeanne. This study is divided into two parts. Part One is comprised of two chapters, and Part Two of five. The first chapter of Part One deals with the theory of a specific women's writing and is subdivided into three parts: woman as reader, woman as writer, and woman as autobiographer. The second chapter presents Sarraute's, Yourcenar's and Desvignes's claims of gender neutrality in their writings, and also discusses the concepts of universality, misogyny, autobiographical style, and the existence of a "new" writing style in these women's works. The five chapters in Part Two draw on examples from the texts to support my claim that a gender specific writing does, indeed, exist in these three works despite what the writers claim to the contrary. Chapter One deals with innovations in women's autobiography such as a reticence to reveal one's self, the issue of truth versus fiction, and the fragmentation of the text. Chapter Two presents certain characteristics of écriture féminine which can be found in each of these texts. Chapter Three examines the family relationships in each of these works focusing especially on the mother- daughter relationship and the "maternal" fathers. Chapter Four analyzes these three works as examples of female Bildungsroman drawing on the theories of Esther Kleinbord Labovitz. Finally, Chapter Five discusses certain areas of interest or concern to women which pervade these works: scissors, clothes, dolls, and the powerful effect of words.

Based on certain theories of écriture féminine, women's autobiography, woman as reader and woman as writer, I conclude that a gender specific writing is present in these three works by Sarraute, Yourcenar and Desvignes.