Monique, portrait of a female reader in Yourcenar's 'Alexis'

Author(s)

  • Katherine Doig Université de Strasbourg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51777/relief18422

Keywords:

female reader, epistolary monologue, Marguerite Yourcenar, Alexis

Abstract

Marguerite Yourcenar’s first novel, Alexis, paints a portrait of a reader – a female reader, that is. Monique, wife of the novel’s eponymous hero, is the addressee of the single long letter which constitutes the entire novel, and in which he explains his decision to leave her in order to live out his homosexuality. The portrait of the reader is complex. Alexis conceives Monique as a model reader according to a gendered stereotype of feminine silence, attentiveness and understanding. But Yourcenar – along with later interpretations of the novel – transforms this silence into a form of power, able as it is to call forth strong and divergent reactions, in particular critical readings which stand against the stereotype of female readers in which the narrator himself believes.

Author Biography

  • Katherine Doig, Université de Strasbourg

    Katherine Doig is currently an associate professor at the University of Strasbourg. Her research in General and Comparative Literature primarily concerns the single-letter epistolary novel. The metapoetic nature of this format raises questions which are inherent to all forms of writing; the implication of an I and a you is a specific invitation to consider the pragmatic and ethical implications of addressing others.

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Published

2023-12-14

How to Cite

“Monique, portrait of a female reader in Yourcenar’s ’Alexis’” (2023) RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 17(2), pp. 57–67. doi:10.51777/relief18422.