L'image feminine dans les contes d'initiation francais, allemands et russes
Institution:
Lyon 2Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Through three books of well-known tales, by perrault, grimm and afanassiev, a certain image of woman is conveyed. In these works, we become aware of the actual constraints which were a burden to them in an "ancien regime" type of society, and we also find numerous myths frequently related to womanhood. The tales accompany women from birth to death, and stress the key-moments of their lives : "initiation", wedding, and transmission to the rising generation. They ask the question of the feminine determination displayed throughout these events. Notions commonly mentioned, such as "masculine activity" and "feminine passivity" are thus re-examined and re-evaluated. It is worth roting that in the tales, the women's responses to the obligations they have to fulfill are presented as original - however limited they may be -. Indeed, women have reckon with the close watch and suspiscion which weigh on them, and which arise from the very recognition of their manifold power, a power they derive from their dual link with life and death, from their situation as mediators between two worlds. The tales, which never fail to loudly claim the immense power of women, also assert the takeover they have undergone.
Abstract FR:
A travers trois recueils de contes celebres, ceux de perrault, des grimm et d'afanassiev , se dessine une image de la femme. S'y devinent les exigences bien reelles qui pesent sur elle dans une societe de type d'ancien regime, comme s'y retrouvent de nombreux mythes frequemment attaches a la feminite. Accompagnent la femme de la naissance a la mort, en insistant sur les moments clefs que sont l'"initiation", le mariage et la transmission a la generation montante, le conte interroge sur la part de volonte feminine dans tout ce cursus. Les notions souvent avancees d'"activite masculine" et de "passivite feminine" en sont ainsi reexaminer et relativisees. Car le conte temoigne des reponses originales - bien que limitees - de la femme aux obligations qui lui incombent. Elle doit en effet compter avec l'etroite surveillance et la mefiance dont elle est l'objet, et qui proviennent de la reconnaissance meme de sa puissance multiforme, qu'elle tire de son double lien avec la vie et la mort, de sa position de mediatrice entre deux mondes. Le conte qui affirme toujours bien haut cette formidable puissance, atteste egalement de la recuperation dont elle fut l'objet.