L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation

While women's experiences of motherhood, violence and sexuality have been of interest to writers and literary researchers alike, the issue of abortion seems to be addressed only in relation to other major concerns, such as trauma. When abortion appears in French-language literature, it is in tw...

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Main Author: Charlotte Thevenet
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Pléiade (EA 7338) 2023-07-01
Series:Itinéraires
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/13862
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author Charlotte Thevenet
author_facet Charlotte Thevenet
author_sort Charlotte Thevenet
collection DOAJ
description While women's experiences of motherhood, violence and sexuality have been of interest to writers and literary researchers alike, the issue of abortion seems to be addressed only in relation to other major concerns, such as trauma. When abortion appears in French-language literature, it is in two forms: either as an autobiographical account, or in an explicitly fictional form. It is the latter that will be examined here, through a comparative study of three contemporary instances of the treatment of abortion in fiction, all three produced after the legalisation of abortion: L'Enfant sacrifié, by Othilie Bailly (1994), Instruments des ténèbres, by Nancy Huston (1996), and Ta grossesse, by Suzanne Duval (2020).This article will question the norms at work in these fictional narratives of abortion. In other words, to what extent do these contemporary works, written by women (some reputed to be feminists, such as Nancy Huston), take up and rework already existing frameworks and commonplaces in order to recount the experience of abortion, in an ongoing negotiation with both conservative and progressive norms shaping representations of abortion? After a foray into autobiographical accounts of abortion, which will allow for a clearer distinction between testimonial and fictional accounts, I will look at the function of abortion in the three novels. Finally, as all three texts belong to different fields of contemporary literature, I will show how they articulate the complex relationship between literary and social values.
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spelling doaj-art-bb57cb1b7fae41ae8d4b32e167244af42025-08-20T02:26:31ZfraPléiade (EA 7338)Itinéraires2427-920X2023-07-012022310.4000/itineraires.13862L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisationCharlotte ThevenetWhile women's experiences of motherhood, violence and sexuality have been of interest to writers and literary researchers alike, the issue of abortion seems to be addressed only in relation to other major concerns, such as trauma. When abortion appears in French-language literature, it is in two forms: either as an autobiographical account, or in an explicitly fictional form. It is the latter that will be examined here, through a comparative study of three contemporary instances of the treatment of abortion in fiction, all three produced after the legalisation of abortion: L'Enfant sacrifié, by Othilie Bailly (1994), Instruments des ténèbres, by Nancy Huston (1996), and Ta grossesse, by Suzanne Duval (2020).This article will question the norms at work in these fictional narratives of abortion. In other words, to what extent do these contemporary works, written by women (some reputed to be feminists, such as Nancy Huston), take up and rework already existing frameworks and commonplaces in order to recount the experience of abortion, in an ongoing negotiation with both conservative and progressive norms shaping representations of abortion? After a foray into autobiographical accounts of abortion, which will allow for a clearer distinction between testimonial and fictional accounts, I will look at the function of abortion in the three novels. Finally, as all three texts belong to different fields of contemporary literature, I will show how they articulate the complex relationship between literary and social values.https://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/13862stereotypeenunciationideologyabortioncommonplace
spellingShingle Charlotte Thevenet
L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
Itinéraires
stereotype
enunciation
ideology
abortion
commonplace
title L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
title_full L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
title_fullStr L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
title_full_unstemmed L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
title_short L’avortement comme trauma : normes et valeurs du récit d’IVG post-légalisation
title_sort l avortement comme trauma normes et valeurs du recit d ivg post legalisation
topic stereotype
enunciation
ideology
abortion
commonplace
url https://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/13862
work_keys_str_mv AT charlottethevenet lavortementcommetraumanormesetvaleursdurecitdivgpostlegalisation