B. Giraud, L'Héroïne goncourtienne. Entre hystérie et dissidence - Novel and Narrative Prose

French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Giraud, L'Héroïne goncourtienne. Entre hystérie et dissidence
Novel and Narrative Prose

Barbara Giraud, L'Héroïne goncourtienne. Entre hystérie et dissidence

Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien: Peter Lang, coll. "Le Romantisme et après en France", 2009, XII-227 p.

  • ISBN 978-3-03911-971-4
  • sFr. 56.– / EUR 35.50 / £ 32.– / US-$ 55.95

Publisher's overview:

Combining a socio-historical and literary approach, this interdisciplinary study, situated at the crossroads of literature and medicine, opens up fresh perspectives on 19th-century medical discourses surrounding female sexuality. In doing so, it sheds new light on the work of two major authors of the era, the Goncourt brothers. Through a Foucauldian reading of the history of sexuality—specifically female sexuality as a product of discursive constructs—the author explores how the Goncourts drew on medical knowledge to express, within their novels, their views on bourgeois society's handling of "abnormality" and interpersonal relations during the second half of the 19th century.
Through the symptomatic depiction of hysteria and neurosis that defines the lives of their female characters, these conservative, misogynistic authors at first glance appear to endorse the structures of power established by modern medicine.
However, an in-depth analysis of their texts reveals an unexpected and hitherto unexplored Goncourt paradox: a deep-seated fracture in their representation of medical discourse embedded within the very core of their artistic writing, transforming this style into an instrument of dissidence.

Table of Contents:

Medical Discourse and Literary Discourse: Reading the Goncourts through Foucault – The Penetration of Scientific Ideas into Literary Discourse – Working-Class Female Figures – The Bourgeois Cycle: The Young Girl and the Woman – Aristocratic Elevation.

About the Author:

Barbara Giraud studied French at Oxford Brookes University. Her doctoral thesis focused on the interactions between the medical field—particularly during the emergence of psychology as a science—and 19th-century literature through the lens of the Goncourt brothers' works. She is currently a Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University.

The nineteenth century witnessed a profound intersection between emerging medical discourses and literary production, particularly regarding the scientific classification of female psychology and pathology. Writers of the period frequently incorporated contemporary psychiatric and physiological concepts into their fiction, reflecting broader societal anxieties surrounding bourgeois morality and norms of behavior. Within this intellectual landscape, the works of the Goncourt brothers offer a significant site for examining how nineteenth-century narrative engaged with scientific authority, psychiatric categories, and the representation of social deviance.

Barbara Giraud explores how nineteenth-century medical discourses on female sexuality intersect with the literary works of the Goncourt brothers, combining literary and socio-historical approaches. The study examines the depiction of hysteria and neurosis in relation to bourgeois society and explores an unexpected fracture in the authors' representation of medical discourse. Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature, the history of sexuality, or the relationship between literature and medicine may find this interdisciplinary volume relevant to their research.