‘Victime et bourreau’: Abortion in the French Roman à thèse, 1903-1907

Abstract

Among rising concerns about the depopulation crisis and the impact of Neo-Malthusianism on France’s already dwindling birth-rate, the Belle Époque saw increased public interest in matters of fertility and reproduction, which tied in with wider questions on the New Woman. After the changes in the medical profession towards therapeutic abortion in 1852, by the turn of the century, abortion was seen by many as commonplace, and made good copy for the journalists seeking to capitalise on their readers’ appetite for scandal. This thesis provides analysis of five novels from 1903-1907, which feature abortion as a major theme or plot-point. Using Susan R. Suleiman’s framework for the roman à thèse, I examine these works in conversation with the debates on abortion of the time, but also as literary works in their own right. These novels have remained largely forgotten in the ‘Archive of Literature’, to borrow Margaret Cohen’s term, aside from within historical studies on abortion, with minimal, if any, literary analysis. I provide close reading of the texts, whilst situating them within their specific historical and cultural context, not only discussing their ideological positions regarding abortion, but the literary mechanisms employed to persuade the reader. Maurice Landay’s La Grappe (1903) forms the basis of Chapter 1, exploring the hypocrisies of class hierarchies and inequalities of abortion access across Paris, paying particular attention to the plight of the fille-mère, or unwed mother. Chapter 2 reads Dr Jean Darricarrère’s Le Droit à l’avortement (1906) with Gaston Tournier’s La Fabrique d’anges (1907) and their contrasting portrayals of the medical practitioners of illegal abortion. The final chapter compares two female-authored novels: Jeanne Caruchet’s L’Ensemencée (1904) and Camille Pert’s L’Autel (1907), exploring the role of homosocial and heterosexual relationships and networks for the individual women who sought, or were coerced into, abortions.