L'autoportrait de la narratrice dans La Religieuse : les ruses du regard

Résumé En

Corinna Gepner : The Self -portrait of the Narrator in La Religieuse. This study of the conflict between attempts to seduce and to move the reader in La Religieuse analyses the physical and moral representation the narrator gives of herself in this work, which is intended to touch us with its account of the misfortunes she suffers. Can there be emotion without seduction? We show that the self-portrait is achieved by indirect means : the female narrator adopts the point of view of others to describe her charms, thus refusing to assume her power of seduction directly. The only exception to the technique of indirect portraiture is the exhibition of Suzanne's suffering, which is exposed shamelessly to the gaze of the person for whom the work is entended. Does suffering exorcise any impure desire to please ? One cannot ignore its erotic power. Seduction is thus at the heart of the work ; this seduction concerns the intended recipient but also the reader, who is reminded by a profoundly ironical author of the gratuitous nature of his own desire.