Abstract:
The following thesis is based on the study of four novels by Marcelle Tinayre (1872-1948). All four novels were published in France at the very beginning of Tinayre's literary career. The selection of these texts was based primarily on their capacity to reflect the preoccupations, wishes, ideals and struggles experienced by the beginning writer.
The aim of this study is to show how the interaction between the text and the ideological background within which it was produced affects the literary genre of the text and gives rise to generic ambiguity. The difficulties encountered by the writer because of the limitations imposed by her social and ideological environment led her to a generic crossroad. Moreover, these 'hybrid'novels borrow from two literary genres which have been traditionally considered antithetical: the romance novel and the Bildungsroman. This research aims to demonstrate that these two genres can, and indeed do coexist within one text, providing the writer with a didactic formula enabling her to challenge the hors-texte while providing a new model for female development and male/ female relationships.
The discussion component of the thesis focuses on a character study which applies several concepts devised by structuralist critics. These theoretical tools provide a framework allowing us to analyse the key male figures in the novels in terms of generic and archetypal origins, enabling us in turn to demonstrate how their antithetical nature is here utilised to demystify and reformulate models of masculinity. The section dedicated to the female character shows how the heroine attempts to reconcile her individuality with her femininity, borrowing again from the models advocated by both the Bildungsroman and the romance genres.
It will become apparent that the generic ambivalence which comes to characterise Tinayre's novels can be interpreted not only as the product of the texte / hors-texte dynamics, but also as a means of providing a solution to the dilemma faced by a female writer in France at the end of the nineteenth century who, because of her gender, is limited by convention in terms of characterisation, thematic content and generic format.
