A Genius for the Modern Era: Madame de Staël's Corinne

Corinne, Mme de Staël's semi-autobiographical heroine of Corinne, ou l'Italie embodies a new kind of genius, one that is both heterogamous, having both male and female traits, and heterogeneous, revealing a combination of op-positional but non-gendered characteristics. Corinne is portrayed as a combination of many geniuses: female/male, sibyl/prophet, southern/northern temperament, individual/universal genius. Through these unusual combinations Mme de Staël attempts to represent Corinne as a republican genius, a genius for and by the people, a genius for a new, just nation composed of emancipated individuals – men and women. (GAL)