'Réprimer le désordre': Prostitution, Regulation and the Poetics of Realism in Balzac and Sand. (1st January 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilson, Steven
• Is Part Of: Irish journal of French studies. Volume 11(2011)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2011-01-01
• Subjects: France -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; France -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 944.00711
• DOI: 10.7173/164913311801283063
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1649-1335

Abstract

This article examines the textual representation of the prostitute in two nineteenth-century French authors — Balzac and Sand. It argues that the trope of prostitution — with its links to concepts of control, regulation and power in Balzac's work, and subversion, disorder and liberation from repressive plot structures in Sand's — constitutes a privileged motif by which to read realism and its counter-discourses in the nineteenth century.