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Welcome everyone !

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These four books are like my Bible !

-Indiana has been published in 1832, it is the story of a young woman forced into marriage who falls in love with another man, which leads her to despair. This novel has 300 pages.

-Lélia has been published in 1833, it is the story of a young woman (again), who is completely disenchanted with the world and society, this novel observes the pessimistic thoughts of the protagonist. This novel has 326 pages.

-Consuelo has been published in 1843, it is the story of a young woman (again and again), who lives in Italy and has a great talent for singing. We follow the protagonist in his many adventures, from Venice to Bohemia and then to Vienna. It is the traveling story of a female artist. This novel has 894 pages.

-Histoire de ma vie has been published in 1854, it's an autobiography, where George Sand tells his life in light of that of his ancestors. This autobiography has 824 pages.

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An anecdote

Before you read my summary, I will tell you a little anecdote:

I read these four books during the summer, unfortunately with the heat two of my books cut in half! Pages were therefore peeled off, and I lost several! But problem: I was in Spain, so I could not go to buy them!

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Summary of my research

Hi everyone ! Welcome to my blog !

Today, I’m going to speak about my research for my master’s degree in French modern literature. In fact, I’m working on the relationship between the female characters and the intimate space in some of George Sand’s books : Indiana, Lélia, Consuelo and Histoire de ma vie.

Without further ado, let's get to the heart of the matter!

So, my research paper is in three parts !

In my first part, I define the notion of “intimate”. It’s very important because there are a lot of ways to understand this word: personal, friendly, romantic, family, scenographic or even artistic intimacy. So, you can see that “intimate” is an extended notion with many meaning. Then, I try to trace the origins of the intimate. Thus, I explain that the intimate started in the thirteenth century (although the term intimate was not used), with the advent of confidence and confessionals. Religion is, therefore, very important for the notion of intimacy, moreover, the books of our corpus all speak of religion. The intimate takes off in the eighteenth century, especially with “les Lumières”, to settle permanently in the nineteenth century. But, in this century, the intimate took another turn, to become a concept specific to women, with literature of “bas-bleus”. George Sand uses the intimate to step back from society and criticize : in particular forced marriage.

In a second part, I focus on the kinds of writing. In fact, letters, diaries or autobiographies are typically used to express intimacy. All of these allowe the use of the monologue, of the reported speeches, which are both means of expression of the character's intimacy. It is also interesting to study a topology of places of the intimate: the bedroom, the boudoir, the attic, and the places of the intimate toilet.

Finally, I work on uses and representations of intimacy in the female characters of George Sand. Concretely, this means that I try to demonstrate that intimacy is not always manifested in private places, but can also be present in certain public places, or certain social gatherings. For instance : the balls, the “Salons” or social walks are public events that allow friendly, romantic, artistic intimacy, and sometimes even, and against all odds, lonely intimacy. Moreover, nature occupies a very important place in George Sands work, in his life and in his books.

Well, I hope you were not bored by this summary, but I imagine that if you read this it is that you have read it in full and that you will have liked and were interested by the subject !

Take care,

xoxo

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George Sand’s house in Nohant

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My favorite room in Nohant: George Sand’s boudoir. She has written most of her books here (look in the mirror ! You can see her desk). She also slept there for years, on a hammock.

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George Sand’s blue room in Nohant

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George Sand’s office in Nohant