Bodyscape: women, orgy, parody

This volume, written in honor of Lucienne Frappier-Mazur, Professor Emerita of French at the University of Pennsylvania, reflects her wide-ranging contributions to the study of French literature, especially the writings of Balzac, Sade and Sand. Organized into five sections, it brings together 23 original essays in English and French by noted scholars of history and literature, the majority of which explore various inscriptions of the body, especially the female body, in political and literary discourse. Many of the issues engaged in these essays - the body as a cultural product insofar as it forms the basis for constructions of the modern nation-state as well as the exclusion of women from that social body; the baroque setting of orgy and the performance of the erotic/eroticized body on that scene; the representation of poor and working-class bodies; women's autobiographical praxis; parody - testify to the influential scholarship of Frappier-Mazur. The broad spectrum of authors in this volume is noteworthy. In addition to essays on Shakespeare, Rousseau, Sade, Balzac, Nerval, Flaubert, Lautréamont, Mallarmé, Zola, there are also studies devoted to Restif de la Bretonne, Olympe de Gouges, Louise Michel, Poictevin, Rachilde, Jean Lorrain, Marthe Bibesco, Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Leiris, Daniel Pennac, and Ken Bugul.