The case for the courtesan novel sub-genre: counter-discourse and intertextuality in de Chabrillan, de la Bigne, and de Pougy -- De Pougy's innovative courtesan fiction -- Co-opting the courtesan persona in the faux Mémoires de Rigolboche and the Les Usages du demi-monde -- Colette's courtesan fiction : the final evolution -- Conclusion.
Summary:
"This book is about the autobiographical fictions of nineteenth-century French courtesans. In response to damaging representations of their kind in Zola and Alexandre Dumas' novels, Céleste de Chabrillan, Valtesse de la Bigne, and Liane de Pougy crafted fictions recounting their triumphs as celebrities of the demi-monde and their outcries against the social injustices that pushed them into prostitution. Although their works enjoyed huge success in the second half of the nineteenth century, male writers penned faux-memoirs mocking courtesan novels, and successfully sowed doubt about their authorship in a backlash against the profitable notoriety the novels earned these courtesans. Colette, who did not write from personal experience but rather out of sympathy for the courtesans with whom she socialized, innovated the genre when she wrote three novels exploring the demi-mondaine’s life beyond prostitution and youth."--Cover.
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