The Erotics of Topography in Scudéry and Lafayette
Abstract
Spatial metaphors predominate not only in French feminist theories mapping out the ailleurs of Hélène Cixous and Luce lrigaray, but also in seventeenth-century women's novels by Madeleine de Scudéry and Marie-Madeleine de Lafayette. The "Histoire de Sapho" and La Princesse de Clèves explore the relations between power and geography suggested by the work of Michel Foucault. Scudéry and Lafayette's heroines resist their century's mise en discours of the female body by refusing, through their rougeur or modestie, to be inscribed in the story. These heroines undergo a synecdochic dismantling from salon and court spaces to found their erotic topographies where Eros is invested in spatial metaphors and the mind integrated in the body's passion.Metrics
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