Women of Letters and the Irony of Life
The article deals with two short stories by Thomas Hardy: “An Imaginative Woman” and “On the Western Circuit”. The first text introduces Ella, the disillusioned day-dreaming wife of a gun-maker. As a lover of poetry and amateur versifier herself, she is extremely moved on learning that the rooms her...
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| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
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FATHOM
2013
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| Aiheet: | |
| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_137 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:fathom_137 https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.137 urn:doi:10.4000/fathom.137 en https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/137 2013-10-23T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/gah6 All rights reserved Women of Letters and the Irony of Life FATHOM Association française sur les études sur Thomas Hardy info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2270-6798 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom Bernard, Stéphanie nouvelle amour ironie lettre féminité genre désir psychanalyse Lacan (Jacques) short story love irony letter femininity gender desire psychoanalysis Lacan (Jacques) The article deals with two short stories by Thomas Hardy: “An Imaginative Woman” and “On the Western Circuit”. The first text introduces Ella, the disillusioned day-dreaming wife of a gun-maker. As a lover of poetry and amateur versifier herself, she is extremely moved on learning that the rooms her husband has rent for the family’s holiday are the lodgings of a young poet who resides there during the rest of the year. As she discovers verses inscribed by the poet himself on the wall just above her bed, her stirring reading experience takes on an undeniably erotic quality, bringing about the disturbing question of hysteria which gained interest and notoriety in the late nineteenth century. In the other short story, entitled “On the Western Circuit”, the exchange of letters becomes a means to woo and seduce. In both stories, the main woman’s masculinity is gradually underlined, while the man engaged in the exchange – the young poet in “An Imaginative Woman”, a young lawyer in the other text – is feminized. Nevertheless, the seemingly phallic women are ultimately confronted with their own failure and frailty, because they are subjected to the power of the letter and come to reflect what the letter dictates. They have to renounce the object of their love and desire. But in the process, it appears that their feminine voices have acquired a poetic dimension, being able to suggest and unveil much more than what the succession of letters on the page seemed to signify. Cet article porte sur deux nouvelles de Thomas Hardy: « An Imaginative Woman » et « On the Western Circuit ». La première dépeint Ella, l’épouse rêveuse et mélancolique d’un fabriquant d’armes. Passionnée de poésie, elle est fortement émue lorsqu’elle apprend que la maison où son mari a décidé que la famille ferait un séjour estival est aussi le lieu de résidence d’un jeune poète durant le reste de l’année. Dans une chambre elle découvre des vers que le poète a lui même écrits sur le mur au-dessus du lit : la lecture de ces bribes d’écriture revêt une connotation érotique qui laisse affleurer la question de l’hystérie, dont les manifestations surprenantes et dérangeantes devinrent peu à peu sujet d’étude à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle. Dans la seconde nouvelle intitulée « On the Western Circuit », l’échange de lettres se fait instrument de séduction. Dans les deux textes, la femme est le personnage principal et sa masculinité est soulignée. Au contraire, l’homme de l’histoire – le jeune poète dans « An Imaginative Woman », un jeune avocat dans l’autre récit – est féminisé au travers de la correspondance. Cependant, la femme qu’on aurait pu dire phallique va être confrontée à sa propre fragilité et à la perte parce que, soumise au pouvoir de la lettre, elle en vient à être le reflet de ce que dicte cette lettre. Elle doit renoncer à l’objet de son amour et de son désir. Mais dans cet acte d’abandon elle trouve sa voix, une voix féminine qui acquiert une dimension poétique et parvient à dévoiler bien plus que ce que la succession de lettres sur la page ne laisse entrevoir. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
nouvelle amour ironie lettre féminité genre désir psychanalyse Lacan (Jacques) short story love irony letter femininity gender desire psychoanalysis Lacan (Jacques) |
| spellingShingle |
nouvelle amour ironie lettre féminité genre désir psychanalyse Lacan (Jacques) short story love irony letter femininity gender desire psychoanalysis Lacan (Jacques) Bernard, Stéphanie Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| description |
The article deals with two short stories by Thomas Hardy: “An Imaginative Woman” and “On the Western Circuit”. The first text introduces Ella, the disillusioned day-dreaming wife of a gun-maker. As a lover of poetry and amateur versifier herself, she is extremely moved on learning that the rooms her husband has rent for the family’s holiday are the lodgings of a young poet who resides there during the rest of the year. As she discovers verses inscribed by the poet himself on the wall just above her bed, her stirring reading experience takes on an undeniably erotic quality, bringing about the disturbing question of hysteria which gained interest and notoriety in the late nineteenth century. In the other short story, entitled “On the Western Circuit”, the exchange of letters becomes a means to woo and seduce. In both stories, the main woman’s masculinity is gradually underlined, while the man engaged in the exchange – the young poet in “An Imaginative Woman”, a young lawyer in the other text – is feminized. Nevertheless, the seemingly phallic women are ultimately confronted with their own failure and frailty, because they are subjected to the power of the letter and come to reflect what the letter dictates. They have to renounce the object of their love and desire. But in the process, it appears that their feminine voices have acquired a poetic dimension, being able to suggest and unveil much more than what the succession of letters on the page seemed to signify. |
| author |
Bernard, Stéphanie |
| author_facet |
Bernard, Stéphanie |
| author_sort |
Bernard, Stéphanie |
| title |
Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| title_short |
Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| title_full |
Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| title_fullStr |
Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Women of Letters and the Irony of Life |
| title_sort |
women of letters and the irony of life |
| publisher |
FATHOM |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/fathom.137 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/fathom/137 |
| _version_ |
1877243380394622976 |