Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 6

10-1-1997

Intertextual Conversations: The Love-Letter andthe Footnote in Madame de Graffigny's Lettres d'unePéruvienneAurora Wolfgang

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Recommended CitationWolfgang, Aurora (1997) "Intertextual Conversations: The Love-Letter and the Footnote in Madame de Graffigny's Lettres d'unePéruvienne," Eighteenth-Century Fiction: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 6.Available at: http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/ecf/vol10/iss1/6

Intertextual Conversations: The Love-Letter and the Footnote in Madamede Graffigny's Lettres d'une Péruvienne

AbstractHighlighting the mix of genres and genders in Françoise de Graffigny's Lettres d'une Péruvienne, Andre LeBreton described the heroine of her novel, Zilia, as an "Usbeck en jupon." The hybrid nature of the text hasfuelled an ongoing debate among critics over the last three centuries as to whether this slim volume belongs tothe ranks of the sentimental novel or the philosophical one, two seemingly antithetical genres. Most critics,however, have failed to examine the extent of the deliberate interplay of the two modes. Graffigny composed asentimental novel that she situated in the world of erudition by combining the sentimental novel illustrated byGuilleragues's Lettres portugaises and the novel of social satire exemplified by Montesquieu's Lettres persanes,thereby linking the two literary traditions by intertextual reference. To gain a better understanding ofGraffigny's bilingual Lettres d'une Péruvienne, we need to look to the mixed-gendered literary world ofParisian salons which so profoundly shaped the author and French letters of the period.

This article is available in Eighteenth-Century Fiction: http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/ecf/vol10/iss1/6

Intertextual Conversations: The Love-Letter and the Footnote in Madame de Graffigny's Lettres d'une Pbruvienne Aurora Wolfgang

H ighlighting the mix of genres and genders in Franqoise de Graf- figny's Lettres d'une Plruvienne, Andre Le Breton described the

heroine of her novel, Zilia, as an "Usbeck en jupon."l The hybrid nature of the text has fuelled an ongoing debate among critics over the last three centuries as to whether this slim volume belongs to the ranks of the senti- mental novel or the philosophical one, two seemingly antithetical genres.2 Most critics, however, have failed to examine the extent of the deliber-

I Andd Le Brelon. Le Romon f r m p t s o u X V I ~ ~ rick (Pans SoclLC d'lmpnmnc el de Pbwnc. 1898). quoted m Pascale S V Dewy. "Mesdams de Tcncrn el dc Grafligny. deur mmanchrer oubl&r de I'Ccole des murs sennblcs" IPhD dtsunaflon. Rtce Umven~ty. 1976). p 202

2 Numerous literary critics have analysed astutely the complex relalions between Lcnns d'unc P h v i c n w and the works of Guilleragues and Mantesquieu, as well as tlie traditions to which they belong. See Janet G. Altman, '%raffigny's Epistemology and the Emegencc of Third-World Ideology." Writing the Fcmnlc %ice, ed. Elizabeth C. Goldsmith (Bosfon: N d w t e r n Univer- sity Press. 1989). pp 172-202, and "Making Room for 'Peru': Graliigny's Novel Reconsidered," Di lemmsdu Ronurn, ed. Catherine Lafarge (Stanford: Anma Libri. 1989), pp. 33-46, Nancy K. Miller, "The Knot, the Letter, and the Book: Grafligny's Peruvian Letters." Subject to C h g c (New Yo& Columbia University Ress. 1988); t i e m Harimaan. "lm Lctfm P&uviems dam I'histoire du mman 6pistolaire." Vicgr du solri@llr des LumM&ms: l a "Pdruvirm" dc Ma- de Gmflgny rl ses "Suird (Slrasbourg: Presses universitairrs & SVasbaurg. 1989). pp. 93- 109, Julia V. Douthwaite, 'The Exotic Olher Becomes Culfural Critic: Montesquieu's Lenm Persanes and Madame & Graffigny's Lcnrcs d'une PCnrviem," Ehric Womn: tiferav Hem- inrs mrd Culmml Strategies in Anden RIgim Fmner (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania k s . 1992); and Katharine Ann Jensen, "Wrifing as a Peruvian or How Women Came to Be Epistolary Novel: Prangoiac de Gmfligny." Writing Love: Lcncrs, Womn and the Novel in Fronee. 1605-1776 (Cdondale: Southern Illinois University Ress. 1995).

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ate interplay of the two modes. Graffigny composed a sentimental novel that she situated in the world of erudition by combining the sentimen- tal novel illustrated by Guilleragues's Lettres portugaises and the novel of social satire exemplified by Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, thereby linking the two literary traditions by intertextual reference. To gain a better understanding of Graffigny's bilingual Lettres d'une Pe'ruvienne, we need to look to the mixed-gendered literary world of Parisian sa- lons which so profoundly shaped the author and French letters of the period.'

In recent years, salon culture and the notion of sociability have emerged as the defining elements of the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment. Daniel Gordon claims that during the reign of Louis x l v the "social" was invented as a "distinctive field of human experience," an ethos that ide- alized communication and bestowed meaning and dignity on the cultured men and women living in an absolute monarchy .' As Dena Goodman fur- ther suggests, the pursuit of knowledge during the Enlightenment became inextricably linked to the social world and its practices, especially salons; adding that "since sociability was understood to be mixed-gender and womancentered, the collaboration of women in completing the tasks of philosophy was also implied. ... The French Enlightenment was built on the complementarity of 'feminine' sensibility and 'masculine' reas~n."~ Most of the principal philosophes praised the benefits of intellectual exchange promoted through worldly conversation. In Histoire de la con- versation, Bmi~e Deschanel summarized the perceived benefits for both sexes:

Tout Ie monde gagna h ce commerce. Si Ies femmes donnerent aux hommes la politesse, l'bl&gance, le tact, les hommes leu donnhrent, en retour, des lumi&res, des connaissances, un savoir tout fait. Les let!& deviment gens du monde, les

3 Cralliply's novel &splays he dual dlswwse rhar "embod~es the social. I,terary, and cultural kntager of boUI he muted and the daninant." uhich Elaine Showalter finds charmeristic of all women's untmg. See "Ferninst Cnllctrm in he Wilderness." Cnncol I ngum (1981). 201 - . .

4 Daniel Gordon, Ciritcnr withour Sovsnignry: Equoiiry ond Sociabiliry in French Thought, 1670- 1789 (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1994). p. 5.

5 Dena Goodman, Tlu Republic of Lnerr (Ithaca: Comell University Ress. 1994). pp. 8-9. In examining the role of salomiPns during the French Enlightenmnt, Gwdman persuasively ar- gues that "female selflessness" complemented and controlled the "male ego" in salon interaction. Nonelheless, numerous women who parlicipated in salon society asserted their own views in a different venue: through their writings. 2

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gens du monde devinrent lettr6s. Ainsi la fusion se fit entre le savoir et le savoir-vivre, entre les id& et les formes, entre la science et la vie; ainsi se dtveloppkent, I'une par I'autre, la politesse litttraire et la politesse s~ciale.~

Conversation with women was understood as the means by which men acquired the linguistic skill necessary to transform their unrefined knowl- edge into topics for cultured conversation, for, as Madeleine de Scud6ry claimed, "il y auroit quelque chose de trop 616vC de trop sGavant, de sec, de rude, ou d'affect6."' Molihre's Philaminte notes that the union of re- fined language and high learning was central to salon culture: "Qu'on y veut rCunir ce qu'on sipare ailleurs, Meler le beau langage et les hautes sciences."8 Fontenelle's wildly successful Entretiens sur la pluralite' des mondes was an early example of a philosophical work reflecting salon society; he gave his astronomy lesson the form of a gallant conversa- tion between a sophisticated philosopher and a charming marquise. In his preface, Fontenelle claimed to seek a linguistic middle ground be- tween the worlds of the salon and the academy: "J'ai ach6 d'amener [la philosophie] B un point oil elle ne fat, ni trop shche pour les gens du monde, ni trop badine pour les savans."9 Under women's linguistic influ- ence, men of letters developed new means of engaging more members of high society, including women, in the innovative ideas and scientific advances of the day. Indeed, Rend Descartes wrote his Discours de la me'thode in French because he wanted to include women as readers.lu The linguistic graces and social exigencies of worldly women not only in- troduced men's learning into polite society, but effectively wrestled it away from the exclusive domain of colleges and academies from which women were barred."

6 Bmi~e Deschanel. Hirtoim dc h conversation (Wris: M. Levy. 1857). pp. 3&31. 7 Madeleine de Scudery, Conversations sur divers sujets, 2 vols (Wris: Claude B d i n , 1680).

1:243. 8 Molihn, Les Frmmer savnntcs (1672; Paris: Lamusse, 1965). p. 92 (au 3, scene 2, lines 872-73). 9 Fonlenelle, (EuvnscompUtes, ed. G.-B. Depping (Genkve: Slatkine Reprints, 1%8), p. 3. Indeed,

numemus eighlecnth-century philosophcs imitated Fontenelle's blend of fiction and philosophy, worldly conversation and intellectual nssoning, for example, Didem in b R6vc dc d'Alembsn (1769. oublished 1830) and Entmticn d'un ahilosoohe nvrc h mrreholc de "* (1775). In , . addition. serentific treatises were wrinea emlicitlv far female sudien-for examale. Franeesco ~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~, .~~~~ ~

~ l g m t t ; . ~ ~ c n r o n # M r . m r p o v r lrr&&(l7~7. Frenchnannlarm 17381; JCr6mcde Lalande. Aslmom,e&r dnmrr (1786). and the B~blrolhiqur unnrrrdlcdrr domcr (1783-97) See Mtchel Delon. "La marquise el le philosophe." Retw dcsScmcer H m m l 54. no 182 (1981). 65-78

10 See Claude Dulong, "From Conversation to Creation." A History of Women in the Wew 111. Rcnoirs~cc ond Enlightenment Paradoxer, ed. Nathalie Zemon Davis and Arletle Parge (Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 1993). pp. 408-9.

I I See Erica H h , Cartesian Ubm: Ursions andSubvcrsions flRarionol Discours. in the Old Rqims (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1992). 3

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Men of letters openly acknowledged their debt to women's conversa- tion for helping to shape the language, address, and form of their works. In his article "Sur les femmes," Didemt describes, albeit condescend- ingly, the process by which discussion with women transforms men's style: " [La femmes] nous accoutument encore B mettre de l'agkment et de la clartC dans les matibres les plus tpineuses. On leur adresse sans cesse la parole, on veut en Etre CcoutC, on craint de les fatiguer ou de les ennuyer, et I'on prend une facilitC particulibre de s'exprimer qui passe de la conversation dam le style."12 Even David Hume, after discover- ing that his works stirred little interest, turned to the essay form which blended what he called the "learned" and the "conversable" minds. Only in the presence of "the Fair Sex, who are the Sovereigns of the Em- pire of Conversation," he claimed, could men of learning develop this compelling style.I3 Diderot's "particular method" born of the interchange between women and men in conversation was at the heart, it would seem, of the enormous popularity of Enlightenment authors."

If literary men gained celebrity with their engaging new style, what did women writers take away from this salon exchange? How did they fit into this larger conversation? Were learned women simply offered the sup- porting role of charming interlocutors or arbiters of taste, of consumers of knowledge rather than its producers? Gordon has recently argued in the affirmative: for the philosophes "women were ideal readers, correspon- dents, and interlocutors on account of their intellectual limitations. They could understand philosophie, but because of their restricted formal ed- ucation and the prejudice against their making a literary career, they could not be phi lo sop he^."'^ But what Gordon fails to see in the male philosophes' "quest for integration" into society are the women who sought integration into the ranks of the philosophes, despite social preju- dice against their admission. Fran~oise de Graffigny is one such woman in the new Enlightenment salon culture of the mid-eighteenth century who attempted to engage the world of knowledge and cultural critique. From

12 Denis Diderot. "Sur les ferns ." (Euvrcs, t o m 1 (Paris: Robert Lalfont, 1994). p. 961. 13 David Hnme, Essays: Mornl, Political, ond Irrcmry, 2 vols (London: Longman's. Green and

Company, 1889). 2367. I4 Only Rousseau, counrering the ideals of the pkilosophcs, condemned the profound inreUccNal

influence of women on m u who frequented their salons. In LcIIm d d'Alcmbcn he rails against polite sociely in which men an forced to speak simplistically and gallantly to please women: "Nos cercles conscrvent encore parmi nous quelque image des maeurs antiques. Les hommes entn eux. disoena de rabaisser leurs id& h la no& des femmes et d'habiller ealamment . . - la raison. peuvent se livrer h des discours graves et Serieux sans crainte du ridicule" (Paris: Flammarion. 1967). p. 202.

IS Gordon. p. 192. 4

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LOVE-LETTERS A N D FOOTNOTES I N LETTRES D'UNE P ~ R U V I E N N E 19

her twenty-year correspondence with her male friend Devaux, we know that she was intensely engaged in the world of letters, widely read, pas- sionately interested in the theatre, an editor and promoter of her friend's literary endeavours, and a contributor to the collective writing projects of the salon she frequented. As a participant in the intellectual and so- cial life of the Enlightenment, Graffigny exemplifies the cultured Clite open to the world of ideas.16

Whereas men of letters successfully integrated feminine models of so- ciability, learned women had a far harder time appropriating the language of intellectual inquiry, as they unsettled deeply held beliefs about gen- der. Even the men who supported women's intellectual endeavours could feel threatened by them. For example, the literary critic Elie FrCron cited the following passage from MoliBre's Les Femmes savanres (1672). to begin his 1749 book review of the Letrres d'une Pdruvienne:

Je consens qu'une femme ait des c l d s de tout; Mais je ne lui veux point la passion choquante De se-rendre seavante afin @&re spavan&; Et i'aime aue souvent aux auestions au'on fait. ~ l l k spchd ignorer les choles qu'elle'spait; De son Ctude enfin je veux qu'elle se cache, Et qu'elle ait du savoir, sans vouloir qu'on le scache; Sans citer les Auteurs, sans dire de grands mots, Et clouer de I'esprit ?I ses moindres propos."

MoliBre's sardonic comedy poignantly reveals the contradictory, if not hostile, attitude of French society towards educated women in the sev- enteenth and eighteenth centuries. FrCron, an anti-philosophe, accepted, on the one hand, that women should be educated; yet, on the other hand, he claimed that educated women should not openly display their knowl- edge. Despite the support of many philosophes for women's intellectual emancipation and despite the eminent place women held in the philo- sophical salons of the Enlightenment, French society, as a whole, was deeply ambivalent about intellectual women.

Although Graffigny adhered to the widely accepted feminine literary model of love-letters, her novel was also explicitly associated with those

16 See Judith Cllltis. "Anticipating Zilia: Mme de Graffigny in 1744," Femmes savanles, femme* d'esprit: French W o r n Inlcllccluds of Ihe Eighrcenlh Ccnmq (New York: Peter h g , 1994).

17 Elie Catherine Pdron. Lenres sur quelques h i t s dc ee temps 1749-1752 ((Gen.?ve: Slatkine Reprints, 1966). 1:26. References are to this edition. 5

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of the philosophes. Fdron noted that the novel came in both serious and frivolous forms: "Nous avons presque autant de romans de morale, de philosophie et de politique que nous en avons dans le genre frivole" (8:21). Mme de Graffigny's writing was apparently placed among the more serious sort, for Fr6ron proclaimed in his journal, on 15 April 1749, that the Lettres d'une Phvienne was among one of the "meilleurs livres de morale, de philosophie et de pdsie" (1:26), and that the natural morality that she promoted was a "saine philosophie" (1:31). Nancy K. Miller remarked that "to invoke the genre of the philosophe may be read as a desire to be counted if not among the philosophers-at least among the authors who count; a producer, then, not merely of novels- a genre abundantly associated with women in the eighteenth century-but of kn~wledge."'~

Within her fiction, Graffigny employs a most ingenious and effective strategy for integrating two separate and gendered spheres of knowl- edge. The love-letters that make up the body of the text are written by the heroine Zilia to her lost Prince Aza, and describe her experi- ences and cultural observations as a Peruvian captive in French society. The heroine's expressions of undying passion for her prince provide the forum for her running commentary on the contradictions of French so- ciety and her place within it as a woman. Although Zilia's letters are written from ar. anthropological perspective, they are the uninformed observations of a foreigner. Only in the margins of the love-letters, dis- placed from the reader's focus of attention, does the author display her scholarship. Graffigny invoked a male tradition of philosophical critique through her scholarly apparatus--a preface, historical introduction, and footnotes-but distanced this apparatus from the sentimental letters by placing it in the margins and assigning it to an editor. In this way, Graffigny effectively dissociated her heroine from the ridiculed femmes savantes of Molikre's comedy.

Surprisingly, Graffigny's scholarly paratexts have received little criti- cal commentary. This neglect is all the more startling because one rarely finds footnotes in a work defined as a novel of love-letters-especially notes that add historical or philological information as in a scholarly

18 Miller, p. 131. Graffigny clearly aligned her intellechral interests with U m c of the philosophes. English Showalter has noted that "she had absorbed the liberal philosophy of the Enlightenment so thoroughly that when she read Locke in November 1738, to be ready for Cirey, she was as- tonished fo discoyer that she had a l ~ a d y thought everything he said," and that "her moral values were oriented toward the world of ideas and creativity, not toward tradition," "The Beginnings of Madame de Graffigny's Literary Career: A Study in the Social History of Literahlre," Es- say.~ on the Age of Enlighrmenr in Honor of Ira 0. Wade (Genbve: Librairie Dmz. 1977). p. 298.

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work.I9 As Claude Aveline notes apropos of the Lenres portugaises: 'kn livre qui parle d'amour ne peut pas avoir de notes en bas de page, ni m€me de renvois dans le texte: il ne demande qu'h se faire aimer, lui a u s ~ i . " ~ And yet if Grafligny's text elicits the love of its readers, it also demands respect. By inscribing the genren of scholarly annotation into her fiction, the author links her work to a specifically male tradition of erudition. Shari Benstock has noted: "The world of scholarship, erudition, endowed knowledge, preceptorship has been by birthright (i.e., by law) the domain of the man, who from earliest times scrawled marginalia, no- tations, graffiti, inscriptions in languages to which he was the legitimate heir; the woman remained outside this process of scripture."n More- over, Graffigny doubly inscribes her text into the masculine tradition of knowledge by citing exclusively mde authors in her notes: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Montaigne, and Garcilaso de la Vega. The novel's paratextual frame continually points to outside (male) references. Citation allowed Grafligny to include her endeavour in certain philosophical debates be.- gun before her time and continued through her work. The prominence of Grafligny's intertextual references strongly suggests that the author wished to situate her novel within a tradition of literature and philo- sophical thinking as well as within a tradition of amorous discourse. The paratextual framing of Zilia's letters tips the scale in favour of a philosophical-as opposed to a sentimentd-reading of this novel.

After the tremendous success of her first edition in 1747, Graffigny reinforced the scholarly aspects of her novel for the second edition pub- lished in 1752. In addition to significant (approximately 180) stylistic changes, her second edition included two new letters of social criticism- letters 29 and 34-and two new references to works already mentioned in the Avertissement. To Montesquieu's famous quip, "Comment peut-on &tre ~ersan?'," Graffigny appended the reference, "Leffres per~anes."~~ When mentioning that "Un de nos plus grands pdtes a crayonnC les

19 In t k two most popular examples of novels using footnotes in eighteenth-century fiction- Rousseau's La Nouvcllc H6Ioisr and Lafloa's h i s o w danpmuses--1he lootncies pliy a pn- dominantly pseudo-editorial function. POI an illuminating analysis of foohotrs in Tom Jones. Trisfmn S h d y , and Fi-gon's W&, see Shari Benstoek. "A1 the Msrgins of D i scom: Fwmotes in the Fiaional Text," P M U 98 (1983). 204-24.

20 Clavde Aveline. Ef four le msfc (Paris: Mereure de France. 1951). p. 249. 21 Gerard Owate calls foomotes a "genre" in S a i l s (Paris: Seuil. 1987). p. 293. 22 Benstoek, p. 218.

23 Frangoise de Graffigny, Lcnms d'unc PCruvirme, intm. by Joan Wean and Nancy K. Miller (New Yo*: Modem Language Associstion of Amrica 1993). p. 3. References. by page and letter number, are to this edition. Footnote numbers within quotation marks (repmduad in a slightly larger lypc face) are from M m de GraRigny's edition.

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maeurs indiennes dans un pobme dramatique," she cited in her note Voltaire's Akire (p. 4). While in the Avertissement to her first edition the fictive editor simply claimed that Peruvian history was "entre les mains de tout le monde" (p. 3). in her second edition Graffigny inserted a six-page "Introduction historiquew-including seven new footnotes cit- ing other authors who wrote about Peruvian history and the exploitation of Peruvians by Europeans-thus placing a concise, abridged history of Peru in the hands of her reader^.^

Graffigny was greatly influenced by Garcilaso de la Vega's Histoire des Ynca~,'~ which was the only work of culture cited in the footnotes to Zilia's letters. Completed in 1616 (French translation 1633, a re-edition appearing in 1744). this history sewed as the factual basis and inspiration for Graffigny's fictional text. Although it is a purely historical account of Peruvian history, Garcilaso's project seems to have contributed to the shape of the Lettres d'une Piruvienne. Most critics claim that the author simply used it to lend her novel some local colour.26 However, unlike the other chroniclers of Peruvian history, Garcilaso had a two- world heritage as his name indicates: Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. The historian's mother was an Incan princess and his father one of the first Spanish conquistadors; it is from the double perspective of a native and a Spaniard that he wrote his Peruvian history. In part 1, he recounted the history of the Incan civilization imparted by his mother's family and, in part 2, the history of the Spanish conquest and the colonization that he witnessed. Because Garcilaso had learned to read the Incan quipos from his mother's family and to read and write Spanish from his father's, he was able to mediate between his maternal and paternal cultures, and he wound up interpreting his mother's culture for his father's people, the European conquerors.27

24 Graffigny's "Introduction historique," added in 1752, was attributed by Franpis-Antoine Chevrier in 1754 to her disciple and admirer Antoine Bret. Georges NoEl cndiu Bret as well in his biography. Unc "Primitive" odiide de i'deob des "eaurs sensible" Madam Graflgny (1695-1758) (Paris: Plon, 1913, p. 3W. Whether or not Bret wntributed to the Intmduction, Grathgny cemnly exercised her authorial control over its content. This possible collaboration. as English Showalter has pointed out, could be a case of what loan Dehan calls "salon writ- ing." See Joan Delean. Tmder Grogr(~phics: W o m n and the Origins of the Novel in Fr-c (New Yo&: Columbia University Ress. 1991).

25 Garcilaso de la Vega, Hisloin &s Yncar (Paris: Prault. 1744).

26 Julia V. Douthwaite, however, intimately wnnects Graffigny's fiction to Garcilaso's history. In Exoric Women, she stresses Grathgny's manipulation of a mythical and idealiled version of Peruvian history: "Revising the Ieyenda ncgra to suit Grathgny's purposes, the 'historical intmduction' vanslates the Spaniards' conquest of Peru into the metaphorical rape of a weak and vulnerable, but highly desirable (feminine) land," pp. 11&11.

27 For a discussion of the foreignness of language in Gmthgny's work, see Laurence Mall, "Langues 8

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LRttres d'une Pe'ruvienne reflects a similar dual heritage; it contains two parts: letters 1 to 17 were supposedly woven, in the Incan fash- ion, with quipos or knotted coloured cords, and letters 18 to 42 were written in the French language. Having become fluent in her captor's lan- guage, the character Zilia also finds herself in a mediating role between the two cultures, as reflected in the novel's "bilingual" form. Indeed, Zilia must translate her own quipos-woven letters for the French reading pub- lic. Through their writings, both Garcilaso and Graffigny lodge protests against the dominant culture that treated Indians and women as inher- ently inferior.z8 In her Avertissement, Graffigny writes: "Nous mkprisons les Indiens; B peine accordons-nous une b e pensante B ces peuples mal- heureux" (p. 3). And in her critique of women's education, her heroine remarks: "Au peu de soin que l'on prend de leur h e , on serait tent6 de croire que les Franpis sont dans I'erreur de certains peuples bar- bares qui leur en refuse uneW(139:34). According to the author, both Indians and women have been denied the ability to think and to reason, and thus, their humanity. The Avertissement and Introduction historique reinforce this critique by specifically refemng to works of European cul- ture that defend the integrity of Peruvians and other foreign nations, including fiction (Voltaire's Alzire and Montesquieu's Lettres persanes), history (Dissertations sur les peuples de l'Ame'rique29 and Pufendorfs Intmduction ri ['histoire ge'ne'rale et politique de l'universw), and philos-

6uangLres et dlrangefe du langage dans Les Lenrcr d'une Pdwviehnc de M m de Grafigny [sic]," Studies on Volrnin and the Eighteenth Cenrnry 323 (1994). 32343; and "Traduction et originel dans les Learcs d'une PCruvicnne de Graffimv." R o m c c Quanrrlv 44 (IW7). 13-23. See also Madeleine Dobie, " m e Subject of ~riting:ianguage. ~ p i & n o l o g y and ldeiily in the Lenrcs d'une Pdnrvia~c." Eighteenth Cenlury (Spring 1997).

28 Garcilaso de la Vega did not simply chronicle the rise and fall of Incan civilizafion, he also wished to vindicate himself and his mother's race by proving the intellectual aptihlde of a Peruvian Indian. In his preface, Garcilasa wrote: "We Indians are a people who are ignorant and uninstructed in the ans and sciences." adding that if his own wok is esleemd. 'Ct would be a noble and magnanimous idea to carry this merciful consideration still funher and honor in me all the mestizo Indians and Creoles of Peru so that on seeing a beginner receive the favor and grace of the w i g and learned they would be encouraged to proceed with similar themes drawn from their own cultivated geniuses." The Royal Cornmentaricr of the Inca. md General History of Pcru, uans, and intm. by H m l d V. Livemore (Austin and London: Univenity of Texas hess. 1966). p. u v .

29 Although no work corresponding to this title (or to a chapter entitled "cddmonies et coutums religieuses") has been located. English Showalter suspects thal the following work was in- tended: 1.-P. Bernard, Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de La Manini&re, et al., CCrPmonies ct coulums religieuscs de tous lerpeuples du mode (Amsterdam 172?43), 8 vols.

30 Pufendorf, Introduction d I'hisloire gCn6role el politique dc I'univrrr (Amsterdam: Zlcharie Chatelain. 1738). 7 vols. For this 1738 edition. Antoine-Augustin Bnrren de La Martiniere wrote introduction d I'histoin dc I'Asie, dc I'Afriquue el dc I'Aminque, pour scrvir dc suited I'hlroduction & I'histoin du Baron dc Pufcndorf (Amsterdam: Zacharie Chatelain, 1738). 2 VOlS.

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ophy (Montaigne's Des Coches). Grafligny thus equated French racism against Peruvian Indians with French men's sexism against women.

Through footnoting, the author bridges the divide between the French and Peruvian cultures by ensuring that the reader will understand Zilia's foreign vocabulary and customs. In the guise of the editor, Graffigny brings her expertise as a Frenchwoman informed about Peruvian cul- ture to bear on the heroine's letters. For example, when Zilia describes Ddterville kissing her hand with "la m&me vdndration que nous avons pour le sacd diad&me3I," the footnote explains: "On baisait le diad6me de Manco-Capac, comme nous baisons les reliques de nos saints" (395). While the notes may ease the reader's task, the frequent use of foot- noted Peruvian words, as well as the use of italics to set off these same terms, serves as a graphic reminder within the French text of the origin of Zilia's letters. In the sentence, "Quel que soit le ChaquiI6 fiele qui te portera ce pdcieux d6pSt. je ne cesserai d'envier son bonheur" (21:1), the use of the term Chaqui for "messager" reminds the reader of the for- eign origin of the letters. Indeed, 80 per cent of the Peruvian terms can be found in the first seventeen letters that were supposedly knotted with the Peruvian quipos before Zilia mastered the French language.

It is Montesquieu's work, however, that served as Grafligny's model for a fictional text with philosophical pretensions. L i e Montesquieu in his Lettrespersanes, Grafiigny adds footnotes to interpret unfamiliar, for- eign references for the French reader. Grafligny, however, uses footnotes to a much greater extent and in a more serious manner than Montesquieu. In the Learespersanes, the reader encounters 18 footnotes in 141 letters, while in the Lenres d'une Pkruvienne there are 55 footnotes in 41 let- ters. Some of Graffigny's "lettres," such as the second, contain as many as eight footnotes, while the later letters contain none. Notes are often la- conic, defining in a few words a Peruvian term, such as "Capa-IncaI4," "Nom gdndrique des Incas dgnants" (20:l). Explanations about Peruvian customs are more lengthy-for example, to Zilia's comment "J'ignorais les lois de ton empire" is appended "Les lois des Indiens obligeaient les Incas d'tpouser leurs sceurs, et quand ils n'en avaient point, de prendre pour femme la premih princesse du sang des Incas, qui dtait du Soleil" (27:Z). On more than one occasion, the author impresses her au- thority upon the reader by adding the title, volume, and page number of a reference. Through her marginalia, Frangoise de Graffigny projects her serious philosophical claim.

Unlike Montesquieu, whose pseudo-erudite footnotes can add yet an- other touch of irony to his satirical letters, Graffigny brings significant literary and historical authority to bear on the intellectual aspects of her 10

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endeavour. For example, Montesquieu's first footnote to the Lettres per- sanes is found in a personal letter from Fatm6, a harem wife, to her sultan, Uzbek: "Quand je t'6pousai, mes yeux n'avaient point encore vu le vis- age d'un homme; tu es le seul encore dont la vue m'ai 6te permise' : car je ne mets pas au rang des hommes ces eunuques affreux dont la moindre imperfection est de n'€tre point hommes." To this, the fictive transla- tor of the Lettres persanes makes the annotation: "Les femmes persanes sont beaucoup plus dtroitement gard6es que les femmes tuques et les femmes indiennes."3' This note creates a distance between the voice of the male translator, who presents objective knowledge about the Oriental world, and the voice of the female letter-writer, Fatm6, who displays her personal feelings. Moreover, the translator's note reinforces the voyeuris- tic position of the male reader in relation to this forbidden feminine (that is, erotic) text. In sharp contrast, Graffigny's footnotes add validity to the heroine's letters. When Zilia observes: "Avant que le Grand Manco-

e(lt apport6 sur la tern les volont6s du Soleil, nos ancetres divinisaient tout ce qui les frappait de crainte ou de plaisir," the footnote documents the source of this information by referring the reader to one of the most authoritative texts on Incan culture, "Voyez I'Histoire des Incas" (395). With this gesture, Graffigny also explicitly addresses the "real" or nonfictional world, linking her text to other texts, and establishing herself as an author among authors."

Indeed, the scholarly references add an authoritative voice to the let- ters, and offer a striking counterpoint to the often nave or passionate voice of the heroine.33 Zilia's metaphoric and poetic language, "Le men- songe n'a jamais swill6 les lbvres d'un enfant du S ~ l e i I ! ~ ~ " (29-30:3), is distinctly contrasted with the editor's literal or objective language found in the footnote, "I1 passait pour constant qu'un Wmvien n'avait jamais menti" (30:3). The disembodied commentaries at the bottom of the page sometimes coexist uneasily with the fervent voice of the letters, creat- ing a contrast between the fictional and the factual, the personal and the impersonal, the subjective and the objective. While Graffigny's narra- tive strategy may seek to integrate disparate and antithetical aspects of

31 Montesquieu, I r l t w s persmcs (Paris: Flammarion, 1964). p. 30. 32 Susan Sniader Lanser argues thal the n d v e s which refer solely to their own fictional vnivwses

will hold less discursive authority than the narmives which "expand the sphere of fictional authority to nonfictional referents and allow the writer to engage, from 'within' the fiction, in a cullun's Literary. m i d , and intellectual debate." Firtiom of Authoriry: W o r n Writers md Narmrive Wce (Irhnca: Comell University Ress, 1992). p. 17.

33 The body of Grafligny's novel, the first-person narrstion of Zilia's letters, expresses a gendered and subjective point of view, which Lanser terms a "personal voice." wh- the scholarly annotations are written from a Witionally masculine "authorial voice" (pp. 15-20). 11

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the novel-the philosophical with the sentimental, the woman's narra- tive with the citations to male authors, the Peruvian with the French-the footnotes inadvertently create disruptions for the reader. For example, in her first letter describing the Spanish massacre, Zilia cries out: "Quel ddsert aride a vu naiie des humains insensibles h la voix de la na- ture gdmissante? Les barbares makes d'Yalpor,I0 fiers de la puissance d'exterminer!" (18:l). The superscripted numeral sends the reader's eyes down the page to the footnote, where, as oblivious to Zilia's cries as the heartless Spanish, the note laconically reports: "Nom du tonnerre." Not only do Graffigny's footnotes break the narrative flow, their style is de- liberately non-narrative. Short, often fragmented sentences written in a syncopated rhythm, these footnotes interrupt the passionate and expan- sive klan of the ardent heroine. They are the very antithesis of the fervent declarations of a feminine style. Thus, the editorial footnote imposes a critical distance between the reader and the pathos of Zilia's letter.

Whether or not Graffigny was conscious of the disturbing effect of the notes, she continued to reinforce the duality of the letters and foot- notes in her later revision. The Introduction historique, added in 1752, contains many of the details that had already been provided by the foot- notes in the first edition. In almost a dozen instances the Introduction furnishes information also appearing in the footnotes. Moreover, oc- casionally, information is repeated verbatim; the annotation "caciques, espi?ce de gouverneurs de province" reappears three times in an essen- tially identical form: in footnotes to the Introduction and to letters 4 and 9. Despite the significant stylistic and substantive changes imple- mented for the second edition, Graffigny maintained the dual effect by preserving her original footnotes.

Within the letters themselves, the reader continually encounters expres- sions of both the heroine's heart and her curious mind. These two realms remain in conversation through the device of footnoting. Zilia's letters represent the inner sanctum of writing, the immediate correspondence of the heart, and self-reflection, as well as personal speculations about the world. Yet, information gathered from reading books-the knowl- edge that enables critical contemplation of the world-is graphically removed from the body of the letters and highlighted in the footnotes. This coexistence of resources of the self and resources of the world finds its equivalent in the adjoining spaces of the letters and the reference footnotes.

Graffigny concludes her novel by reasserting that the ideal union be- tween the sexes is one of intellectual partnership. Just as Zilia construes 12

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Aza to be her ideal companion and reader, intimately invested in her sur- vival and fostering her learning and intellectual curiosity, Wtewille too must fit this model. Zilia explains to her enamoured suitor that their alliance must be founded not on a fantasy image but on mutual under- standing, shared purpose, and communication. Zilia clearly delineates the role of each partner. "Vous me donnerez quelque connaissance de vos sci- ences et de vos arts," she tells Wtewille, and "je acherai de vous rendre agrkables les charmes ndifs de la simple amiti6." She invites Ddterville to relish with her, not desire, but the "plaisir d'&tre7' built on "une connais- sance lkgbre, mais intdressante, de I'univers, de ce qui [nous] environne, de [notre] propre existence" (167:41). This amicable arrangement re- places the sexual contract of domination with a social contract of shared exploration of the self and the world," a model quite possibly inspired by the intellectual companionship between the sexes relished by women such as Graffigny in salon society.

Lettres d'une Piruvienne exemplifies in both plot and form the tensions inherent for women writers in adopting a language of knowledge in eighteenth-century France. Graffigny attempts to integrate sensibility and reason by simultaneously offering the public a sentimental journey, while crafting her novel as a work of knowledge and a voyage into the world of ideas. Yet, the castle to which the heroine retreats in the end is an architectural metaphor for the separate spheres contained in the novel. Indeed, two rooms in the heroine's estate predominate: the French library in which books authored by "hommes divins" reside; and adjoining it, the Peruvian temple in which painted Virgins line the walls, covered with mirrors to inspire self-reflection and encourage a retreat into the inner sanctum of contemplation. Both the outer consideration of the universe of the scholar and the inner reflection of the letter writer are affirmed by Graffigny as essential, each a necessary means of comprehending the world. Although these two rooms are under one roof, and are even adjoining, they are nonetheless quite apart. Just as the heroine cannot reside in two places at once, the reader cannot enjoy the love-letters and contemplate the scholarly footnotes simultaneously. This symbolizes the inherent separations-between disparate discourses, sexes, and voices- and magnifies the distance between them. Perhaps these divisions speak

34 Zilia indicts French maVimonial unions when "les liens dc mariage ne soient kiprcques qu'au moment de la c616bration. et que dam la suite les femmes seules y doivent Otre assujetties" (144:34). Carole Pateman argues that "thc social contract is a story of freedom; the sexual contract is a story of subjection'' and of "men's domination over women, and the right of men to enjoy equal sexual access to women." The Sam1 Contract (Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1988). p. 2. 13

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to Graffigny's ambivalence about genuine integration. Or perhaps, the \ novel reflected what she could not escape, the contradictory attitude of 1 French society towards educated women. 1

Indeed, the already ambivalent attitudes towards learned women be- came even more hostile as the Enlightenment progressed. The possibility of an intellectual partnership between the sexes that shone during Graf- figny's day had grown dull by century's end. Numerous male writers expressed intense anxiety about what they perceived as women's dan- gerous influence on society, leading to the confusion of sex roles. Most adamant was the great critic of Enlightenment sociability, Rousseau. In kmile (1762), he argued that a chasm should exist between the language of men and women: "L'homme dit ce qu'il sait, la femme dit ce qui plait; I'un pour parler a besoin de connaissance, et I'autre de go0t; I'un doit avoir pour objet principal les choses utiles, I'autre les agdables. Leurs discours ne doivent avoir de formes communes que celles de la v6rit1?."~' Joan Landes asserts that Rousseau, and the Revolutionary Republicans after him, feared the power of women's speech, and thus condemned women's public role in the critical functions of French culture, offering them a less vocal and less threatening role in the domestic sphere.%

By any standards, Lenres d'une Pdnrvienne was a resounding success in France and throughout Europe; indeed, it was one of the eighteenth century's outstanding literary events. Taking her cue from her contem- poraries in the Republic of Letters, Franqoise de Graffigny capitalized on the increasingly popular conversational aesthetic that defined learn- ing as a social not a solitary endeavour, allowing feminine sensibility to give shape to masculine reason, and taking for granted that women and men could engage the world of ideas together. Zilia's letters cap- tured what had become a way of life for many of the intellectual elite of mid-eighteenth century French society-an ongoing intellectual exchange between the sexes about their world and their relation to it.

California State University, San Bernardino

35 Jcm-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. PI&& (Paris: Gallimard. 1969). 4:718. 36 Joan Landes, Wbmn Md the Public Sphcn in the Age of French Revolution (Ithaca: Comell

University Ress. 1988). See also W l y n GuhviRh, Twilight of the Goddesses: Women Representation in the Fnneh Revolutionary Era (New Bmnswick: Rulgers University Press. 1992).

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