Jürgen Siess

Abstract:

This article views correspondence as a cultural practice to be distinguished from conversation or the epistolary novel, and examines the letters Isabelle de Charrière exchanged with David d’Hermenches and Benjamin Constant in this perspective. A crucial function can be assigned to the inversion of gender roles in the epistolary dynamics. Addressing the baron d’Hermenches, the young woman initiates an exchange characterized by wit and galanterie. The gender difference appears in the interplay of the images projected by the two correspondents: David endows his partner with masculine features; Belle, however, does not accept the portrait of the young lady as a mature man, in which she detects the gallant intentions of her correspondent. Nevertheless, Mlle de Zuylen maintains throughout the brilliant exchange the unconventional position of the independent young woman tending to subvert discursive and cultural norms.

Twenty-five years later, young Benjamin Constant and Mme de Charrière develop an epistolary relationship in a setting noticeably different from the first one. This time a correspondent presenting himself as an effeminate young man, passive, hesitant, prone to ennui, is looking for a partner likely to guide him. Isabelle enters wholeheartedly into his search for a sentimental education, and attempts to convince Benjamin not only to leave behind the ethos of the effeminate man but also to adopt the project of a gender relationship based on equality and reciprocity.

SvD, December 2008

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