Taking Up Space’

Description

A study of contemporary French representations of women at work.  
‘Taking Up Space’ explores representations of women in contemporary French film, literature, television, magazines, and visual art. In particular, contributors reflect on how these images present women at work in various spaces—professional, reproductive, domestic, illegal, and activist alike. Sonja Stojanovic is assistant professor of French and gender studies at the University of Notre Dame. Siham Bouamer is assistant professor of French Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Acknowledgments                                                                                                                 iii
 
Notes on Contributors                                                                                                          iv
 
Introduction
Siham Bouamer and Sonja Stojanovic                                                                                   1
 
 
PART I           Behind Closed Doors: Work and Intimate Spaces
 
A Transmedial and Transtemporal Reading of Labour on the Run in Albertine Sarrazin’s L’Astragale
Polly Galis                                                                                                                              20
 
Good Housekeeping: Domestic Noir and Domestic Work in Leïla Slimani’s Chanson douce
Ciara Gorman                                                                                                                         45
 
A Woman’s Huis clos: Exhausted Feminism in Paule Constant’s Confidence pour confidence
Jennifer Willging                                                                                                                    66
 
A Life’s Work: Accounting for Birth in Naissances
Amaleena Damlé                                                                                                                    91
 
Sexual Identity as Work in Mireille Best’s Il n’y a pas d’hommes au paradis
Blase A. Provitola                                                                                                                   116
 
Psychoanalytical Work in Chahdortt Djavann’s Je ne suis pas celle que je suis
Rebecca Rosenberg                                                                                                                 142
 
 
PART II         Revolving Doors: Liminal and Precarious Spaces
 
‘Be proud of all the Fatimas’: From Alienated Labour to Poetic Consciousness in Philippe Faucon’s Fatima
Siham Bouamer                                                                                                                      164
 
Chimerical Cashiers: Exposure, Ableism and the Foreign Body in Marie-Hélène Lafon’s Gordana and Nos vies
Sonja Stojanovic                                                                                                                     190
 
Subterranean Space and Subjugation: ‘Being Below’ in Delphine de Vigan’s Les Heures souterraines
Dorthea Fronsman-Cecil                                                                                                         215
 
In Concrete Terms: Gendering Labour in Anne Garréta’s Dans l’béton
Jennifer Carr                                                                                                                           238
 
Woman at Sea? Space and Work in Catherine Poulain’s Le grand marin
Amy Wigelsworth                                                                                                                   260
 
From Cabaret to the Classroom: Bambi’s Professional Transition
Maxime Foerster                                                                                                                     286
 
 
PART III        From Opening a Few Doors to Blowing Them Off
 
Women’s Bénévolat militant at the Beginning of the MLF
Sandra Daroczi                                                                                                                       308
 
Women Working – Women Rebelling. Female Community and Gender Relations in Ah!Nana
Valentina Denzel                                                                                                                    332
 
‘Putting Us Back in Our Place’: #MeToo, Women and the Literary/Cultural Establishment
Mercédès Baillargeon                                                                                                             355
 
Breaking Down Barriers and Advocating for Change in the French Film Industry: The Career and Activism of Actress Aïssa Maïga
Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp                                                                                                          384
 
Unapologetically Visible? Representing and Reassessing Contemporary French Womanhood in Dix Pour Cent
Loïc Bourdeau                                                                                                                        412
 
Tracées to Black Excellence? Black Women at Work in Mariannes Noires by Mame-Fatou Niang and Kaytie Nielsen
Johanna Montlouis-Gabriel                                                                                                     440
 
 
Conclusion
Siham Bouamer and Sonja Stojanovic                                                                                   4

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