In search of forgotten women writers

Many women writers feature very little, if at all, in works on literature. A database created by a team led by Mélinda Caron, a researcher in French language and literature at Université TÉLUQ, will help restore them to their rightful place. It could also help explain why these women have been relegated to the margins of literary history.

The database lists 48 works of literary history devoted specifically to women writers. These cover a vast period, stretching from the founding of the Académie française in 1634 to the institutionalization of research on women and their literature in universities from the 1960s onwards.

The articles presented in these works exhibit various characteristics. Some say very little about the women writers themselves, relying instead on extensive excerpts from their works. They all offer a series of clichés about women’s literature, which may take the form of praise, criticism or commentary on their relationships with the men in their circle.

The database contains the names of 1,068 women writers who were French or who wrote in French and lived in France. This figure alone is staggering, as it far exceeds the number of women writers who were known at the end of the 20th century. This clearly demonstrates that a huge number of women writers had fallen into oblivion.

Each woman writer has her own entry. They can therefore be easily traced through the 48 works listed, which will greatly facilitate future research on them. The database is currently hosted on the Heurist platform. Eventually, it could become available to the entire academic community and the general public.