Autobiographical intentions and interpretations: Marie Cardinal, Annie Leclerc
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis seeks to provide new readings of the autobiographical fictions of Marie Cardinal and Annie Leclerc. The study has three central aims. Firstly, to present a comparative overview of Cardinal's 'Les Mots pour le dire' and Leclerc's 'Exercices de mémoire'; secondly, to explore the significance of the texts in relationship to developments within feminist theory and practice; thirdly, to develop a mode of reading which ackl0wledges the importance of autobiographical intention, social context and critical reception. My study will make a claim for the importance of considering the situated experience of the author and the reader. My methodological approach is informed by autobiographical and literary theory, feminist theory and reception studies. The thesis explores a number of themes in the writing of Cardinal and Leclerc including the construction of autobiographical identity in relationship to the reader, the social function of the autobiographical sub-genres of confessional and testimonial writing, the impact of theories of the 'death of the author' on experiential writing and its significance for a feminist agenda. The manner in which gender influences the shape and tone of the autobiographical pact and the relationship between gender and critical reception are further themes under consideration. A further concern will be to explore the feminist claim that traditional theories of the genre, authored by male critics, fail to account for the 'difference' of women's writing. It will also be argued that early forays into the genre by Anglo/American feminist critics have tended either to essentialise female identity or to erase the self from the text altogether. Acknowledging the shift of interest- in autobiographical criticism from the 'autos' (self) to the 'graphe' (text), I align myself with those theorists who have argued for the need to reinstate the 'bios' (life) back into autobiographical criticism. While acknowledging the impact of deconstructionist pers…
abstract: This thesis seeks to provide new readings of the autobiographical fictions of Marie Cardinal and Annie Leclerc. The study has three central aims. Firstly, to present a comparative overview of Cardinal's 'Les Mots pour le dire' and Leclerc's 'Exercices de mémoire'; secondly, to explore the significance of the texts in relationship to developments within feminist theory and practice; thirdly, to develop a mode of reading which ackl0wledges the importance of autobiographical intention, social context and critical reception. My study will make a claim for the importance of considering the situated experience of the author and the reader. My methodological approach is informed by autobiographical and literary theory, feminist theory and reception studies. The thesis explores a number of themes in the writing of Cardinal and Leclerc including the construction of autobiographical identity in relationship to the reader, the social function of the autobiographical sub-genres of confessional and testimonial writing, the impact of theories of the 'death of the author' on experiential writing and its significance for a feminist agenda. The manner in which gender influences the shape and tone of the autobiographical pact and the relationship between gender and critical reception are further themes under consideration. A further concern will be to explore the feminist claim that traditional theories of the genre, authored by male critics, fail to account for the 'difference' of women's writing. It will also be argued that early forays into the genre by Anglo/American feminist critics have tended either to essentialise female identity or to erase the self from the text altogether. Acknowledging the shift of interest- in autobiographical criticism from the 'autos' (self) to the 'graphe' (text), I align myself with those theorists who have argued for the need to reinstate the 'bios' (life) back into autobiographical criticism. While acknowledging the impact of deconstructionist pers…
author: Webb, Emma V.
keywords: 840 Literatures of Romance languages
date published: 2001-04
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:54:36Z
provider: London Metropolitan University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of North London