The Young Side of the Femme Fatale

The Young Side of the Femme Fatale

Proposal for a special session at the MLA 2011, in Los Angeles (January 6th-9th 2011).

This panel concentrates on the young side of the “femme fatale” in the French-speaking literature of the last thirty years of the nineteenth century. While scholarship on naturalism, symbolism and decadency generally focuses on well defined feminine types, such as prostitutes, dancers and working women, it is the dangerous non-boundaries of female youth that will be discussed at this session. Why and how is virginity itself fatal in the writings of that era? Is this fascination simply metaphorical of the writer's fear of the white page or is it announcing the loss of an aesthetic aura? And beyond the texts, how are these young girls painted, sculpted and photographed? Submissions about Stéphane Mallarmé's “Hérodi¬ade”, Jean de Tinan's “Aimienne”, other fatal virgins from the brothers Goncourt through Emile Zola, via Jean Lor¬rain, Marcel Schwob, Pierre Louÿs, and Joris-Karl Huysmans are welcomed. Papers will be given in English.

1 page detailed abstracts or completed papers (by email, preferred) by March 15th to Virginie Pouzet-Duzer.