Childhood, Redemption, and l'écriture de soi : Colette's La chambre éclairée and La maison de Claudine

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the child figure in Colette's work, analyzed as a means to a literary redemption after Colette's initiation into literature through another work depicting a child, Claudine à l'école . The reintegration of the child figure is presaged by the appearance in early works, especially La vagabonde , of images of the archetypal "divine" child. The child figure is then integrated into stories, first featuring Colette's daughter Bel-Gazou, then the child Colette herself. The theme of play, traced in vignettes from La chambre éclairée and La maison de Claudine , reveals a process by which Colette reintegrates the child figure into her textual self. This then participates in giving voice to Colette's écriture de soi .