The Rhetoric of Belittlement: A Paratextual Reading of La Douceur de Vivre by Marcelle Tinayre

Julia V. Schrank Marcelle Tinayre was, essentially, the Danielle Steele of France’s Third Republic. Her

œuvre of approximately thirty frothy, popular novels often followed what Diana Holmes

summarizes as “the basic romantic plot of a single heroine, meeting with a hero, elimination of

obstacles, and conclusion in marriage” . How is it, then, that modern scholars who study Tinayre 1

are beginning to see her as a feminist voice that captured the essence of her era?

I’ll attempt to answer this question today by using an illustrated edition of Tinayre’s La

Douceur de Vivre. As the Belle Époque was a period with a robust visual heritage and a thriving

print culture, this illustrated luxury edition of a Tinayre novel published in 1910 is a rare treat. Its

illustrated covers, frontispieces, and intertextual illustrations provide us with a vibrant

incarnation of Tinayre’s world.

On the surface level, these illustrations make the text more readable. According to

Holmes, Tinayre’s texts were already chock full of elementary semiotics that directed the

readership. For example, Holmes observes, “...items of decor such as weather, light, and location

have straightforward metaphorical significance (a dark rainy day will almost certainly mean

sadness for the heroine)” . 2

I would like to argue, however, that these otherwise facile illustrations can actually be

considered paratextual. The primary scholar of paratext, Gérard Genette, describes paratext as

the means by which “a text becomes a book and thus presents itself to its readers and moreover

Diana Holmes, French Women’s Writing 1848-1994.(London: The Anthlone Press, 1996). 58.1

Diana Holmes, French Women’s Writing 1848-1994. 58-9.2

to the audience” . Genette calls attention to the prefix “para-” in his neologism in order to 3

support his notion that the paratext is auxiliary to the text itself. If I take Genette’s theory– which

in his original text applies only to words and their placement on a page– and apply it to images,

these illustrations are not only auxiliary to the text itself but also to the readership: they allow

Tinayre’s underlying message to peek through the frills of her mass-market prose.

Despite the added readability of the text with the addition of these illustrations (credited

only, oddly enough, to a so-far-untraceable artist calling himself or herself “Simont”), I

categorize this edition of the text not in the domain of Roland Barthes’s “readable” texts but

instead in his preferred class of “scriptable” texts. This is to say that, even with Tinayre’s

transparent symbolism and the paratext of the illustrations, the critical reader could become the

“scriptwriter” of a subversive feminist narrative in Tinayre’s text that surpassed the words 4

printed on the page. For the reader-scriptwriter of this novel, the paratext of the illustrations

presents not a prefabricated vision of Tinayre’s world, but instead a possibility to read in another

dimension the delicate, light-handed feminism of the novel.

The component of the illustrations that I wish to script as a feminist sub-narrative is the

character’s costuming. France Grenaudier-Klijn, a Tinayre specialist, highlights the importance

of clothing in Tinayre’s œuvre, stating that clothing’s utility in self-presentation creates a

Gérard Genette, Seuils (Éditions du Seuil, 1987).7.3

Rachel Mesch describes Tinayre's feminism: «Tinayre was... a self- declared feminist who appeared at 4

feminist congresses and who had published in Marguerite Durand’s female- run newspaper La fronde ». (“A Belle Epoque Media Storm: Gender, Celebrity, and the Marcelle Tinayre Affair.” French Historical Studies 35:1). 96.

“metonymic potential” for everything a character wears . This sartorial metonymy permits a 5

scripted reading of Tinayre’s deft subversion of “gendered roles in the social sphere” . This 6

subversion is primarily tied to the reversal of the male gaze: in Tinayre, it is the woman who

controls the act of looking, and she even slips into the role of the voyeur. Tied to the usurpation

of this traditionally-masculine role is the weakness of the Tinayrian man, who is little more than

an accessory to the woman’s ambitions or even a mere tool to accentuate her winsome qualities.

I. The reversal of the gaze and the gazer

The most evident example of Tinayre’s clothing-based feminism comes to light in a

comparison between the protagonist and her cousin. Marie de Laubespin, the leading lady, is

timid and loyal, and therefore diametrically opposed to her cousin, the extravagant Isabelle Van

Coppenolle. At the dinner party that sets the story in motion, the cousins are immediately

contrasted in Tinayre’s descriptions of their outfits:

Isabelle’s dress covered her without hiding her. It was a sheath dress made of cream crêpe

de Chine, which was tied at the waist with a heavily-embroidered Empire shawl,

resplendent in gold leaves; she had pearls at her neck...This choice of wardrobe, too

lavish for a dinner with family, contrasted with Marie’s black chiffon. 7

France Grenaudier-Klijn, “Le Rôle du vêtement: Étude d'une description vestimentaire dans un roman 5

de Marcelle Tinayre”. New Zealand Journal of French Studies 21:2). 15.

France Grenaudier Klijn, “L’homme tinayrien, ce faux héros.” Écrire les hommes: Personnages 6

masculins et masculinité dans l’œuvre des écrivaines de la Belle Époque (Saint-Denis: Université de Paris 8, 2012). 134-5.

Marcelle Tinayre, La Douceur de vivre (L’Illustration, 1911). Archive.org. 22.7

The illustration that accompanies this passage reveals an even stronger contrast. In the

image, Marie is on the left and Isabelle is on the right, and they are readily-identifiable thanks to

Tinayre’s costuming descriptions. Yet, the illustration adds another dimension to these wardrobe

descriptions as it captures a sense of the characters’ movement as translated through their

clothing. In the image, the folds at the waist of Isabelle’s crêpe de Chine number indicate a

certain affected posture, presumably to accentuate her voluptuous silhouette. Furthermore, the

fluidity of the train of the dress suggests an indolent, seductive leisure. In direct contrast, Marie’s

dress, literally on the other side of the frame, is almost completely rigid in its presentation of

straight lines that fall directly to the floor. This as well as the lack of folds at the waist of the

dress is particularly notable given that chiffon is one of the lightest, and therefore most

responsive, fabrics. Such a lack of motion points to the rigidity and discipline of Marie’s strictly-

maintained posture.

It is through this reading of motion in the illustrations that a feminist notion emerges

from this scene. As this scene also marks the moment when the two women are presented to

Angelo di Toma, a man who will be a suitor to both cousins at his villa in Italy, the manner in

which these women present themselves becomes even more important. Holmes notes that a male

onlooker is often present in the descriptions of female characters in Tinayre, which she interprets

as a hallmark of traditional patriarchy:

Women are consistently marked out textually [in Tinayre’s œuvre] as the objects of desire

rather than as subjects, by the use of an implicit or explicit male focalizer...And this

concession of the power of the gaze to the man alone is consistent with the whole

representation of gendered identity. 8

However, Grenaudier-Klijn reads this paradigm in an entirely different way:

The relationship there instituted between the protagonists becomes the realm of the

female prerogative in such a way as to mold the archetypal model– woman looked at,

male looking– in favor of the expression of an individuality that the woman forces the

male character to recognize. 9

In my analysis of the illustrations and the movement they add, I favor the latter’s

perspective. The evident efforts made in self-presentation by each woman’s positioning of her

body indicate each woman’s “prerogative.” Marie, still faithful to her adulterous, absent husband,

demonstrates in her posture that she is spoken for and does not desire Angelo’s attention. On the

other hand, Isabelle, who has fallen out of love with her dull husband, frames her body in an

inviting, seductive way to attract Angelo. Both women are fully cognizant of the postural

attitudes they are projecting to the bachelor and therefore they control not only the scene but the

man himself.

In addition to uprooting the traditional paradigm of the male gaze, the women of La

Douceur de vivre unseat the man as the viewer of sensual visions. When Isabelle arrives in Italy

to visit Marie at the di Toma villa, Marie observes the shift in Angelo’s desires:

Madame [Isabelle] de Coppenolle reigned...the Italians, seduced, found her “ a sort of

Française that one might see in a novel”...Angelo’s passion for [Marie] was finished, and

Holmes 59-608

France Grenaudier-Klijn. “Le Rôle du vêtement: étude d'une description vestimentaire dans un roman 9

de Marcelle Tinayre”. 23.

Signor di Toma “made love” to the beautiful, red-haired woman. Marie was not jealous of

Isabelle and did not miss Angelo’s importune gallantries. 10

Though this passage is not explicitly narrated by Marie, the end of the description of Isabelle’s

initial arrival indicates that Marie recognizes that Angelo is going to pursue Isabelle. Marie’s

observation of the new couple’s encounters is not explicit in the text, but it is imagined in the

illustration that accompanies this scene.

In the illustration, Marie, represented in profile, openly observes Isabelle and Angelo’s

scandalous flirtation. Here it is again the sartorial element that reveals the role reversal. In this

illustration, the two cousins wear almost the same dress, and the Empire-style waist of each of

their garments is drawn on the same line in the image. The two white dresses create parallel focal

points and their aligned waists bring a horizon line to the composition. These two compositional

elements as brought to life by the women’s clothing, serve to frame Angelo between the amorous

gaze of Isabelle and the voyeuriste gaze of Marie. In the end, he is objectified by this parallel

stare of the two women. Though he looks back at Isabelle, Marie’s visual trajectory is unilateral,

putting Angelo in the object position.

Angelo’s objectification by the formal elements of this illustration shows the female

capacity to usurp the male position of voyeur and to escape the historical characterization of the

woman as object. This role reversal could be read as a subtly feminist gesture on the part of the

author, her editors, and the illustrator that can be scripted into Tinayre’s novel with the aid of this

edition’s paratextual illustrations.

Marcelle Tinayre, La Douceur de vivre. 106-7.10

II.The Male as Caricature

Another direct, explicit gesture favored by Tinayre is her tendency to describe men as

caricatures of traditional masculinity. This Tinayrian trait is reinforced by the aesthetics of the

physical descriptions of the men and, more precisely, in the descriptions of their wardrobe.

The best personification of this phenomenon in La Douceur de vivre is Angelo, the Italian

seducer who pursues both Marie and Isabelle. The first description of Angelo’s clothing is a

pejorative one: “[He is] a sort of rasta, dressed in fabric that is too thin, shod in yellow shoes and

capped in an old, gray felt hat...[He is] incidentally a nice-looking boy, but ghastly!” 11

This description of Angelo as a poorly-dressed man– in the era of the dandy, no less– is

reinforced by the illustrations. In one such example, Angelo begs Marie to return his romantic

feelings, and his pitiable position is accentuated by the disorder of his costume. His jacket is too

big, and its sleeves wrap clumsily around his arms in such a way that indicates the poor cut of the

cheap garment. Furthermore, as the jacket is also too long, his stature and therefore his presence

are diminished.

These characteristics, made evident by the paratext, belittle Angelo, accomplished artist

that he is, to the stereotype of the artiste who is consumed by his passion in spite of all else.

Grenaudier-Klijn observes that this belittlement is prevalent in Tinayre’s work, stating that while

the males seem to be familiar iterations of the traditional masculine stock characters of the

period, they in fact do not merit the symbolic value that society would give to this role . 12

Marcelle Tinayre, La Douceur de vivre. 13.11

France Grenaudier Klijn, “L’homme tinayrien, ce faux héros.” 134-5.12

On a deeper level, the caricatural Angelo may be the embodiment of Tinayre’s indictment

of the romanesque fin-de-siècle hero for his impracticality, in particular given the growing

autonomy of the femme nouvelle. In this way the end of the novel, in which Isabelle flees France

with Angelo, does not represent a situation wherein the man is the hero who whisks the woman

away, but instead one in which Angelo is reduced to a mere accessory in Isabelle’s liberation. In

the end, the couple’s flight is not a scenario in which the frivolous woman is blinded by her love

but instead an incident that bears witness to the evolving landscape of women's’ rights in the

Third Republic. Therefore, in underlining Angelo’s disheveled appearance as a physical hallmark

of his weakness, the illustrations crystallize Tinayre’s notion that her men are, as Grenaudier-

Klijn calls them, “false heroes” . 13

If, on one side, Angelo is an accessory in the novel’s central plot, Claude, Marie’s

childhood love is, on the other side, made an accessory by the author’s literary devices.

Grenaudier-Klijn reads Tinayre’s men as a means to enhance the female characters or, quite

simply, “narrative utilit[ies]” who contribute the the story’s didactic ends . When applying this 14

reading to La Douceur de vivre, it becomes clear that Claude, Marie’s great and even

“mystical” love is nothing but a tool in the promotion of Marie’s politeness and chasity. 15

The first example of Claude’s “utility” can be found immediately after the character is

introduced. In a sort of flashback, Marie and Claude’s first meeting is described in such a way as

to place the emphasis on Marie’s goodness:

France Grenaudier Klijn, “L’homme tinayrien, ce faux héros.”13

France Grenaudier Klijn, “L’homme tinayrien, ce faux héros.” 136.14

Though Marie herself characterises her love as such, it is Isabelle that chooses this particular adjective. 15

Marcelle Tinayre, La Douceur de vivre. 115.

In every school, there is a little boy whose shoes are too big, whose sleeves are too long,

and who one never calls to the parlor...Claude was that little boy...Marie liked him. Marie

offered him half of her cakes, her box of crayons, her puzzle...Marie, cold and fragile

Marie, cherished Claude because he was poorly-dressed, impecunious, and motherless . 16

Without Claude to demonstrate her warmth, Marie is characterized as “cold and fragile,” yet his

presence allows her to perform charitable acts that reinforce her fervent Christianity and give her

personal integrity. It is also important to note that Marie’s goodness is further praised in light of

Claude’s pitiable costume. His ill-fitting attire diminishes him in such a way as to attract the

reader’s sympathy and lead them to then be thankful for Marie’s salvation.

Claude grows into a hardy, “very masculine” adult, but, as the only illustration of his

character underlines, he still only serves as an asset in Marie’s positive characterization. In this

image, Claude’s clothing serves as a compositional element that showcases Marie. His

uniformly-dark suit creates a negative space beside Marie, and in fact the only lighter elements

of his costume are a white collar and a hat ribbon that form diagonals in order to frame Marie’s

illuminated visage. The aesthetic usage of Claude in this illustration is easily tied to textual

evidence that points to Claude being a mere literary device in Marie’s character development as a

pious, moral woman.

Claude’s belittlement is different from Angelo’s yet it retains the sense that he is an

accessory for the female character and is, despite Marie’s enduring affection for him, yet another

“false hero.”

Marcelle Tinayre, La Douceur de vivre. 16.16

III. Conclusion

It is through the paratextual illustrations of this luxury edition of La Douceur de vivre that

a feminist reading elevates the novel to the “scriptable” domain. In the beginning of the novel,

the body language of each cousin in the dinner scene is an example of a detail that becomes

scriptable with the addition of the paratext. It is also with this supplementary layer of meaning

that one can script into the novel the reversal of the traditional paradigm of the male gaze. In the

illustrations of La Douceur de vivre, women present their bodies according to their own

prerogative and even usurp the position of the voyeur to objectify the male characters. These

male characters are caricatural, as in the case of the poorly-dressed supplicant Angelo di Toma,

or accessories, as with Claude, whose characterization only serves to illuminate Marie’s positive

traits. It is due to this belittlement of the exaggerated, romanesque male characters that Tinayre’s

women emerge as nuanced, liberated individuals who govern their own destinies.

Hence, the addition of visual elements to Tinayre’s popular novel allows the reader to

draw conclusions that surpass the reading of the unaccompanied text. These illustrations lend a

visual vocabulary to the nascent feminism of the period with subversive sartorial traits that

imbue the female characters with authority and belittle the men. Furthermore, the addition of this

paratexual, scriptable reading fundamentally disproves the notion that women writers of the

period were frivolous and only focused on writing for their peers. Tinayre cleverly infuses

theoretical ideas into her text in an almost undetectable, unobjectionable way that would be

palatable to the masses. The genius of Tinayre lies her their ability to package her most

controversial ideas in a “readable” and even amusing way to subtly impart the “scriptable”

ideology of the femme nouvelle in a way that could slip past the ruling patriarchy and into the

hands of the Belle Époque woman.

The Rhetoric of Belittlement:

A Paratextual Reading of La Douceur de Vivre by Marcelle de Tinayre

Julia V. Schrank, University of Virginia

–Gérard Genette, Seuils (1997)

“Paratext is [the] manner in which a text becomes a book and thus presents itself

to its readers, and moreover to the audience.”

–Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)

“That which we can write (or rewrite) [is] scriptable. Why is the scriptable more

valuable to us? Because the very intent of literary work...is to make the reader not only a consumer but also a producer of

text.”