Rachilde: Comment `Refaire l'Amour'

Despite the apparent pornographic, misogynistic framing of Rachilde's texts, her writing is a statement of feminine desire. Her work specifically (if cryptically) address the mother-daughter relationship. An analysis of three 1928 works – Refaire l'amour, Alfred Jarry ou le surmâle de lettres, and Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe – reveals how the encoded return of the repressed maternal abandonment experienced by Rachilde underlines and shapes the themes, symbols, and characters of both her novels and non-fictional texts. In the guise of seemingly perverse sexual and amorous configurations, Rachilde writes a moving account of a daughter's betrayel and a woman's vindicaton. While disdaining the women's movement, she effectively contextualized what women want. (LKS)