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Catherine Gallouet: "Le coup de foudre, ou les avatars de la différence sexuelle dans le roman du XVIIIe siècle"



Abstract:

Love at first sight has always been recognized as a cliché which belongs to the western narrative tradition. Since the Greek novel, this commonplace typically works as a necessary motor of love narratives. Rich studies, such as Jean Rousset's Leurs Yeux se rencontrèrent analyse love at first sight, but indifferently, without taking into account sexual differences. It seemed essential to revisit this narrative cliché and to situate it in the SATOR project, in short, to define it as topos, in order to study its forms, while inscribing sexual differences. Our study of the eighteenth-century novel shows first that this is not a single topos, but a macro-topos combining at least two topoi. Moreover, the introduction of the element of gender in this study suggests an unexpected notion, namely that this «universal» cliché belongs, in fact, rather to an exclusively masculine imagination.

Examples of use of this topos by women.

AsK, jan 2011



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