The writer at the center of this scandal-a woman who used the patronymic Colette to command respect-was a trailblazer of French literature. The cause of this unrest: an onstage kiss between French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and her lover Mathilde de Morny, an aristocrat otherwise known as “Missy.” Opening night proved to be the only performance of Egyptian Dream, as police promptly shut the production down.Ĭolette in costume for Egyptian Dream Public domain via Wikimedia Commons I conclude, however, that Colette's novel equally flags up the difficulties inherent for both characters as they attempt to negotiate a space for their identity within the competing gender discourses of 1920s France.Walking past the Moulin Rouge on the evening of January 3, 1907, passers-by encountered riots bleeding onto the streets of Paris.
I argue that the eponymous hero's psychological trauma is contrasted with Léa's more positive adaptation to a post-war world. Second, the article examines in more detail the depiction of a returning soldier suffering from war-induced neurasthenia. Whereas some commentators have argued that the novel reproduces reactionary and anti-feminist post-war stereotypes, this article suggests that the ambiguities evident in the figures of Edmée and Chéri work to reveal the inconsistencies and limitations of the ideals of femininity and masculinity that were widely promoted during this period. First, it focuses on the ways in which the novel intersects with the 1920s debate on gender identity, which conflates with a more generalized sense of cultural despair that was discernible after 1918 in diverse political, social and literary discourses.
It discusses two interconnected aspects of the novel's evocation of the upper echelons of post-war French society. This article considers the effects of the First World War on gender relations as they are perceived and represented in Colette's 1926 novel La Fin de Chéri.
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