The Temporal Construction of the Female Body in the 18th-Century Novel

Mohammed Jerradi

Article Details

The Temporal Construction of the Female Body in the 18th-Century Novel

Authors:

Mohammed Jerradi

Publisher:

Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco

Journal:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY GENDER STUDIES المجلة الدولية للدراسات الجندرية متعددة التخصصات: ميدوسا و الفكر المعاصر Vol.7 Issue 2, pp.0-0

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

7/2026

Document Language:

French

Document ID (Org No.):

2001844416

pISSN:

2737-8373

Keywords:

Abstract:

 This study examines the construction of feminine temporality in the eighteenth-century epistolary novel, through a corpus comprising Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, Julie, ou La Nouvelle Héloïse by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lettres de Fanni Butlerd by Madame Riccoboni, and La Religieuse by Denis Diderot. It argues that time transcends its function as a mere chronological framework to become a narrative and anthropological category that plays a central role in the representation of the female body, sensibility, and the identity of the heroines. The analysis highlights the existence of a specifically feminine temporality, shaped by the social, moral, and emotional constraints characteristic of the Enlightenment. This temporality unfolds through several complementary modes: the present of lived experience, the suspended time of passion, the anticipation of an uncertain future, and affective memory, which reconstructs the past. Through the immediacy of letter writing, the epistolary novel provides a privileged space for expressing this inner temporality while revealing the tensions between individual aspirations and social norms. The study also emphasizes the contrast between a masculine temporality, associated with action, movement, and conquest, and a feminine temporality characterized by interiority, waiting, and contemplation. Finally, it demonstrates that the heroines develop various strategies to resist the power of time, notably through writing, memory, imagination, and passion, thereby transforming temporality into a privileged space for the expression of their subjectivity. Consequently, time emerges as a structuring principle of the poetics of the Enlightenment novel and as a key element for understanding the relationships between the body, gender, narrative, and society.

Article Details

The Temporal Construction of the Female Body in the 18th-Century Novel

Authors:

Mohammed Jerradi

Publisher:

Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco

Journal:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY GENDER STUDIES المجلة الدولية للدراسات الجندرية متعددة التخصصات: ميدوسا و الفكر المعاصر Vol.7 Issue 2, pp.0-0

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

7/2026

Document Language:

French

Document ID (Org No.):

2001844416

pISSN:

2737-8373

feminine temporality

body

epistolary novel

18th century

subjectivity

gender

memory

narration

passion

women

waiting

Issues

Article Details

Authors: Mohammed Jerradi

Publisher: Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco

Journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY GENDER STUDIES المجلة الدولية للدراسات الجندرية متعددة التخصصات: ميدوسا و الفكر المعاصر Vol.7 Issue 2, pp.0-0

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 7/2026

Document Language: French

Document ID (Org No.): 2001844416

pISSN: 2737-8373

Issues

Authors:

Mohammed Jerradi

Publisher:

Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco

Journal:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY GENDER STUDIES المجلة الدولية للدراسات الجندرية متعددة التخصصات: ميدوسا و الفكر المعاصر Vol.7 Issue 2, pp.0-0

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

7/2026

Document Language:

French

Document ID (Org No.):

2001844416

pISSN:

2737-8373