Queerness dans Gabriel de George Sand et Mademoiselle de Maupin de Théophile Gautier en dialogue avec Frankenstein

Abstract

For the romantics of the nineteenth century to have focused so heavily on love, adoration, the specific portrayals of romantic relationships tend to be heavily defined within a heteronormative binary which can be attributed to the time period, as well as the unevolved state of the language to describe gender and relationship experiences outside of the common biological understanding of man and woman. In my thesis, I argue that language, societal standards and expectations, as well as legal ramifications obscure the evidence of early understandings of individuals with marginalized gender and sexuality identities within the French language. The introduction delves into defining the terms “queer” and “nonbinary” informed by the context of gender and sexuality studies as well as tracks the historical emergence of these terms in contemporary times. These definitions and historical references provide the context necessary to be able to understand nuanced trends in queer writing which was often at risk of being heavily censored societally and linguistically due to the presence of grammatical gender within the French language restraining people to being defined by male or female gendered pronouns. The first chapter of my thesis explores the hybrid closet drama and prose, or dialogue/spoken novel, Gabriel (1839), by George Sand as a representation of a gender nonconforming character through a plot characterized as satire or absurd in order to break apart the rigid Renaissance-era gender roles. The second chapter focuses on another Romantic-era writer, Théophile Gautier, and his heavily controversial 1835 novel, Mademoiselle de Maupin. The chapter critically analyzes the development of queer sexuality and gender through the lens of erotic sexual awakenings that defy gender and social norms in order to provide early evidence to the precursor for “Fin de siècle” male fetishization of queer women and grandeur. Finally, the third chapter explores Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) as a comparative reference for the linguistic limitations and trends of queerness in nineteenth century France. The novel’s gothic themes of constructing a body and learning gender through the lens of horror provide a third genre of the exploration of the queer corpus allowing for a wider understanding of the body of queer literature from the 1800’s. My thesis concludes that there is a large amount of subversive textual evidence that supports the idea that queer experiences of gender and sexuality are present in nineteenth century English and French literature in spite of passive and active forms of censorship in the forms of language, laws, and sociomoral expectations for conduct which opens up a chance for further research into these “closeted” representations.