Several general objectives emerge from these working hypotheses. FEATHER aims to identify and enhance a body of work by French-speaking Luxembourgish female authors. This project differs from existing research projects and proposes an innovative contribution that will focus on the following objectives:
Production. How to qualify and characterize Luxembourgish French-speaking female authors?
By relying on a literary criticism of the works of female authors and on the identification of existing archives, FEATHER (to integrate the unpublished in the analyses) aims to analyse the place of women on the literary scene, taking into account that the literary canon is the product of a “système androcentrique” (Boisclair, 2004). It is therefore a question of determining who are the Luxembourgish authors of the French language, how to define them as authors and what are the characteristics of their writing? This makes it possible to think of female literature, particularly French-speaking, as a system in which the Luxembourg example finds its place. This research question focuses on female authors – taken as individuals or as groups – and their ways of intervening in the literary field.
Reception. How do female authors break into the literary scene?
The analysis of the literary journeys of the female authors allows us to identify the processes and strategies that have allowed them to become sacred on the national scene. It is a question here of being interested in the reception of works on the literary scene. Literary networks, and their role and influence, participate in the development of this scene. Thus, FEATHER will be interested in literary critics, editors, correspondence, which sometimes constitute strategies of authors. In parallel, the project will study the role – positive or negative – played by the literary institutions through the awarding of prizes. The edition of a new one by A. Koltz planned as part of the project, participates in this movement.
Network. How can we grasp the Luxembourg literary scene in this context?
FEATHER will establish a critical approach at local and international level, aiming to put the Luxembourg literary scene into perspective using a critical approach. This will lead us to reconsider, reassess and elevate the dynamism and the importance of the literary production of French-speaking female authors of the 20th and 21st centuries in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. FEATHER will provide innovative lighting because it is based on a perspective of Francophone studies and Gender studies. The resulting platform, designed as a research and educational tool, will allow us to take a fresh look at the Luxembourg literary scene as small literature, the way it is structured, its networks and places of influence.
In view of its objectives, aimed at questioning and revaluing the place of female authors in Luxembourg, FEATHER contributes to the development of current research anchored in French-speaking studies and gender studies:
FEATHER aims to question the processes of visibility/invisibility. Contrary to what was envisaged before the preliminary works, female French-language literature in Luxembourg is characterized by a high recognition rate (see statement of hypotheses): higher than that of its male counterparts. This leads us to postulate corpus effects. Thanks to FEATHER, it will be possible to precisely analyse the Luxembourgish female literary scene and to relate visibility to the names of the cited female authors. The first observations illustrate the fact that visibility is based on reiteration phenomena.
One of FEATHER’s strengths is to focus on Luxembourgish literature, and particularly on areas less studied by current research: the small literatures. The Luxembourgish literature, by virtue of its minority and peripheral status, contains elements of understanding about tensions with the French-dominant literary field. By extension, this will enrich French-speaking studies by taking into account specific literature (multilingual, central place in Europe, etc.) which nevertheless presents obvious similarities with Belgium and Switzerland.
Our approach does not seek to define a corpus of female works under the sole argument that these works were written by women. We therefore postulate feminine literature as a system; some works, meeting the subjective criteria of their time, managed to break the glass ceiling and thus entered the literary canon.
FEATHER will be an opportunity to renew the approach to Luxembourgish literature by adding a more inclusive dimension with regard to literature written by women. This could also lead the Luxembourg literary scene to be more visible and more attractive in the current research fields of gender studies and French-speaking studies.