For a genealogy of French lesbian literature

Abstract

This essay posits that a genealogy of French lesbian literature can be traced back to a certain number of women’s writings of the first decades of the 20th century, and in particular to the period between the two world wars; among these authors are Renée Vivien, Natalie Barney, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Jeanne Galzy and Colette. In their poetic and, to a lesser extent, narrative texts, the liquid element often acts as a metaphor for homoerotic relationships between women, but also as an image of the fluidity of gender and sexual identifications, beyond male-female and heterosexual-homosexual binarism.