عنوان

The image of woman in selected French fiction of the Inter-War period :

TLets459500

The image of woman in selected French fiction of the Inter-War period :

[Thesis]

Holmes, Diana

a study of literary responses to the changing role of women, 1918-1939

University of Sussex

1977

Ph.D.

University of Sussex

1977

The inter-war years in France were the scene of a prolongedand often violent debate over the form society should takeand the rights of conflicting social groups. Within thisgeneral atmosphere of controversy the dispute over the roleof woman often goes unrecognised, though in fact it emergescontinually in the Press and literature of the period, bothas a specific political problem (the fight for theenfranchisement of women) and as an element in the overallideological conflict. The purpose of this study will beto examine the situation of women during those years, andespecially to examine the interpretation of women's rolein contemporary fiction. The relationship between socialreality and literary image will inevitably be a centralconcern, though the 'reality' of women's position must beunderstood not only in terms of events and facts, but interms of a complex formation of ideas, representationsand attitudes which govern the practical behaviour of thesexes in a given society. In other words, the notion of'image', taken here to signify a manner of seeing, aparticular conception, will be applied not only in thetreatment of literature but also in that of society. Thefirst section of the thesis will attempt to establish,largely by reference to the Press and contemporarypublications, the predominance of certain collectiveimages of woman, the second to relate these to the imagesthat emerge from the novels of several contemporary authors.This relationship is inevitably a complex one.

Holmes, Diana

University of Sussex

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y