{"title":"New Rules for Old Age: Gavarni, the Goncourts and Les Lorettes vieillies","authors":"Rachel Skokowski","doi":"10.3828/ajfs.2022.07","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nThis article examines caricaturist Paul Gavarni’s lithographic series Les Lorettes vieillies and Jules and Edmond de Goncourt’s short text La Lorette as two conflicting visions of the lorette, a type of nineteenth-century prostitute celebrated in literary and visual sources. The Goncourts’ text has previously been studied for its explicit aim to break the rules around representing the lorette; this essay argues, however, that Gavarni’s little-known images were in fact more radical. Exploring the ways in which Les Lorettes vieillies humanizes the experience of the ageing lorette, a taboo topic in other sources, this article shows how the series challenges society’s norms around age and gender. Finally, one should consider Les Lorettes vieillies, published at the same time and in the same newspaper as La Lorette, as an important intertext informing the Goncourts’ own presentation of the lorette as a transgressive figure.","PeriodicalId":8649,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of French Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Journal of French Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3828/ajfs.2022.07","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines caricaturist Paul Gavarni’s lithographic series Les Lorettes vieillies and Jules and Edmond de Goncourt’s short text La Lorette as two conflicting visions of the lorette, a type of nineteenth-century prostitute celebrated in literary and visual sources. The Goncourts’ text has previously been studied for its explicit aim to break the rules around representing the lorette; this essay argues, however, that Gavarni’s little-known images were in fact more radical. Exploring the ways in which Les Lorettes vieillies humanizes the experience of the ageing lorette, a taboo topic in other sources, this article shows how the series challenges society’s norms around age and gender. Finally, one should consider Les Lorettes vieillies, published at the same time and in the same newspaper as La Lorette, as an important intertext informing the Goncourts’ own presentation of the lorette as a transgressive figure.
期刊介绍:
The Australian Journal of French Studies is an international, fully refereed journal devoted to French literature, culture, society and history. The journal encourages new theoretical engagements and particularly welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. Articles are published in English and French. The majority of numbers are focussed on a specific theme, but numbers on miscellaneous topics will usually be published annually.