Marie-Laure Girou-Swiderski: "Le mentorat féminin vu par les romancières du XVIIIe siècle"

Abstract:

The present study examines the significance of feminine mentorship as presented in ten novels written by women authors between 1747 and 1826. The mentor/disciple relationship can be categorised in three principal types, which are illustrated by the following topoi: *PARENT_MENTOR, *FRIEND_MENTOR, and *LOVER_MENTOR. In the examples illustrating the first type, the topos, *DEATH_PARENT_INFLUENCING_DESTINY, resumes the «successful outcome» of the parental mentorship, the dead person in question being the father. The widow-mothers embody in fact the exemplary mentor. The parental substitutes are those that fail the most. Friend mentors can either be simple variations on the parental mentor or function according to the model of the double or the reversing of roles, illustrating the topos WOMAN_HELPING_WOMAN. Finally, we have the lover mentor who confirms the topos LOVE_CAUSING_LOSS, unless the female lover mentor renounces the accomplishment of the love wish. The three types therefore belong to a maternal mentorship, postulating a possible reversal of roles, and which is linked to the sharing in a common destiny.

AsK, jan 2011

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