Europe (avril 1997), p. 133-144.

Anne Foata

Gail Godwin

Abstract. Gail Godwin, whose novels began appearing in the 1970s, is a Southern author who, like many other Southern writers of her generation, has gone beyond the traditional patterns of the literature of her region. The great majority of her characters, mostly women and intellectuals or artists, appear engaged in a quest of self that makes them challenge the Southern code of family and manners. Her classically crafted novels privilege the aristotelian primacy and resolution of plot, the discipline of life, the individual's responsibility for the shaping of his or her destiny. They reject the existentialist despair as well as the post-modernist denial of self.

anne2.foata@wanadoo.fr

The following versions are available: