Hypostases de la féminité vaudoise dans la prose de Jacques Chessex

Résumé

In Jacques Chessex’s works, the woman identifies with the intimate source of creative inspiration.
Whether a novel, short story or chronicle, eroticism is ubiquitous. The presence of the feminine element in
men’s life is often associated with a devastating phenomenon as it is described as one of the causes of impaired
consciousness and inner conflicts of the characters. In La Confession du Pasteur Burg, the woman is seen as the
incarnation of evil, the source of sin and the Devil’s emissary. However, we cannot say that for Chessex the
woman is only a foundation of the erotic desires. In Portrait des Vaudois, the writer describes and reveals
several incarnations of the vaud womanhood: young girls, mothers or grandmothers, the women represent the
centre around which all the family is organised. They are tougher than men, ready to risk everything, tenacious,
wise and bitter. A last instance of the femininity is the one presented in Dans la buée de ses yeux, which actually
represents a true praise of feminine sensibility, a trip to her inexplicable charms. We aim the study this triple
hypostasis of the womanhood in Jacques Chessex’s writings while emphasising the perspective of the writer on
femininity