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TBA
In a series of essays published in the course of the 1920s, the French writer, Colette, airs her views concerning the new styles. Mostly satirical, and written in an acerbic tone, sometimes scornful and often amusing, these views are by no means admiring. Yet it would be too facile to dismiss the essays as opportunities for misogynist jokes or middle-aged admonition. In much of her writing, Colette chronicled the history of femininity, using it to raise questions whereby to probe the forces at work in the fashioning of women.
In this paper, I shall study a selection of these essays with a view to teasing out exactly what was at stake for her in this business of making an appearance. At times it is sheer practicality, at others, the effects on sociality and sexuality of an exclusively scopic regime. At all times what starts out as a talent for the funny side turns out to reveal the material practices of gendered subjectivity.
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