SOURCE: Beaulieu, Jean-Philippe. “Erudition and Aphasia in Hélisenne de Crenne's Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procèdent d'amours.” L'Esprit Créateur 29, no. 3 (fall 1989): 36-42.

In the following essay, Beaulieu argues that in Les Angoysses douloureuses de Crenne employs an often speechless protagonist who is at the same time the erudite and articulate narrator, and in doing so is able to report the limitations imposed on women as well as overcome them.

The first French novel written by a woman, Les Angoysses douloureuses qui procedent d'amours, composed by Marguerite Briet and published for the first time in 1538 under the nom de plume of Hélisenne de Crenne, displays a potentially interesting textual phenomenon: in the first part of the novel, the narrator and the heroine are identified as one and the same person. In the narrative, Hélisenne places herself both as the speaking persona (le sujet parlant) and...