En quête des jardins maternels : voix polyphoniques de Katherine Anne Porter, Ellen Glasgow et Eudora Welty
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Bordeaux 3Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
This study rests on the analysis of women's texts to demonstrate the metamorphoses of the idea of creativity in twentieth-century southern literature. We argue that women authors' attempt to undermine previous themes and plots allowed for the emergence of the figure of the female artist, trying to bridge the gap between gender identity and artistic identity. This study comprises the works of three authors: ellen glasgow, katherine anne porter and eudora welty, who published throughout the twentieth century and whose treatment of the notion of women's creativity establishes a sense of fertile continuity. The first part of this work deals with the literary tradition glasgow was heir to and shows how four of her main novels subvert traditional representations of southern femininity and celebrate female creativity. The second part of this study looks at glasgow's essays, as well as porter's correspondence, manuscripts and short stories to establish the double nature of the creative process women writers are involved in: it includes laying the foundations of their artistic identity and investing metaphors derived from their gender identity with artistic meaning. Welty's fiction resorts to similar metaphors, including that of the patchwork quilt, to illustrate the creative process. The last part of this thesis analyses the act of reading as creative process. We show that reading can reinforce female characters' compliance with the norms of gender identity but also function as a liberating and self-creating experience for others.
Abstract FR:
Cette etude examine les metamorphoses de la notion de creativite dans la litterature du sud des etats-unis a travers des ecrits de femmes. Parallelement a l'entree en ecriture d'auteurs cherchant a bouleverser les themes et les intrigues dont elles heritent s'affirment des femmes artistes essayant de trouver une issue au conflit opposant identite de genre et identite artistique. Trois auteurs ont ete retenus : e. Glasgow , k. A. Porter et e. Welty , dont les publications s'echelonnent au cours du vingtieme siecle et permettent de mesurer l'evolution du traitement de la creativite feminine. La premiere partie de ce travail analyse la tradition litteraire dont glasgow est l'heritiere et montre comment quatre de ses romans tentent de subvertir les representations de la feminite sudiste essentialisee pour souligner la creativite feminine. La seconde partie examine les essais de glasgow , ainsi que la correspondance , les manuscrits et les nouvelles de porter , ecrits qui revelent la double nature du processus createur dans lequel les femmes artistes sont engagees , tant au niveau de la diegese qu'au niveau biographique : elles creent leur identite d'artistes et utilisent des metaphores liees a leur identite de genre pour illustrer leur discours sur la creativite et tisser les fils de la diegese. Les Œuvres de welty confirment la validite de ces metaphores , dont l'image centrale est celle du patchwork quilt. La derniere partie repose sur le processus createur engendre par la lecture. La lecture garantit la conformite de certains personnages feminins aux normes de l'identite sexuelle, toutefois elle est instrument de liberation et de creation de soi pour d'autres.