Amongst Women: Literary Representations of Female Homosociality in Belle Époque France, 1880–1914 by Giada Alessandroni (review)

Reviewed by: Amongst Women: Literary Representations of Female Homosociality in Belle Époque France, 1880–1914 by Giada Alessandroni Kate M. Bonin Alessandroni, Giada. Amongst Women: Literary Representations of Female Homosociality in Belle Époque France, 1880–1914. Peter Lang, 2021. ISBN 978-1-80079-064-3. Pp. 246. Fictional representations of women's friendships are largely absent from (male-authored) canonical novels of the nineteenth-century, a lacuna that Alessandroni proposes to fill by analyzing a select number of what she terms "middlebrow" (9) novels, written by and for women during the Belle Époque (although the ontological overlap between the concepts of "middlebrow" fiction and "women-authored works" is an issue that Alessandroni might have addressed in more depth). This is a fruitful period for inquiry because of its interesting contradictions, as Alessandroni observes: there is conflict between city and countryside; between classes; between the Republican ideal of égalité and the realities of gendered inequity enshrined in the Code Napoléon. On the one hand, Third-Republic educational reforms created more literate girls and women; as well as new, secular, (theoretically) cross-class spaces for female sociability, including public girls' schools and école normale teaching colleges. On the other hand, novels written by and for these new "femmes modernes" did not necessarily challenge received notions of what constituted appropriate feminine behaviors, roles, or life choices. On the contrary, even in some novels that feature educated, "brainy," self-assertive "New Women" protagonists (such as Yvette Prost's 1905 Salutaire orgueil or Colette Yver's 1907 Princesses de science), the plot maneuvers these characters into making self-sacrificing choices in the name of preserving traditional marriage (whether the heroine's own marriage, or her female rival's). Twenty-first century readers (who might have been hoping for a less hymeneal happy ending!) may well ask whether any conclusions may be drawn from these stories, other than a reaffirmation of the patriarchal values subtending so much of Belle Époque society. Alessandroni argues that there is, indeed, abiding interest and value in these novels, which feature women characters who define themselves in relation to one another rather than to a man "in a way that often challenges the dichotomization of women (sexual vs. maternal) and deconstructs sexual differences (male vs. female, active vs. passive, reason vs. emotion)" (210–211). Although she describes the way that these fictional femmes modernes challenge traditional gender binaries as a "queering effect" (22), Alessandroni excludes same-sex attraction from the scope of her analysis, a choice which, she argues, allows her to focus on the "important historically distinct" category of non-romantic female homosociality (8). The reader may feel that this End Page 180 line of demarcation creates a binary opposition (in a work of scholarship dedicated to dismantling other binaries); or that there is still another chapter on Belle Époque women's homosociality yet to be written. On balance, however, Alessandroni shines useful light on an overlooked corner of the literary field of the long nineteenth century. It is recommended reading for scholars interested in French women's writing; the schoolgirl fiction genre; and Belle Époque literary history. End Page 181 Kate M. Bonin Arcadia University (PA) Copyright © 2024 American Association of Teachers of French