L’Univers féminin de Catulle Mendès dans les nouvelles du Nouveau Décaméron
The Feminine Universe of Catulle Mendès in the Short Stories of Le Nouveau Décaméron

Summary/Abstract: This work aims to contribute to the broadening of the critical analyses of the nine short stories by Mendès published in Le Nouveau Décaméron, texts that still remain open to interpretation. First, we discuss the polemical aspects of Mendès in the literary context of the end of the century, as well as the importance of the writer at the crossroads of the literary trends of this period. We analyse the different sources of Mendèsian inspiration in the writing of his short stories, and we specify the importance of his contribution to the project of Le Nouveau Décaméron. We then explore the universe of Mendès in these nine narratives which have been forgotten by the critics, and whose analysis confirms the recurrent exploration of the feminine. The writer offers the reader a range of female characters defined by one essential element: the power of sensual or sexual desire, a component frequently unavoidable in their lives. The study of the feminine in these texts makes it possible to discover a bold Mendès, open to the dynamism of the liberation of morals and to the new moral paradigms of Parisian society.

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