Condeiul feminin şi romanul istoric
The Feminine Pen and the Historical Novel

Summary/Abstract: Starting from a very summative discussion about the metadiscourse of the historical novel, Joan Kelly’s and Joan Scott’s contribution to the appearance and the evolution of women’s history, this article’s author constructs a comparison among three women who authored historical novels: Sarah Dunant, Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu, and Ileana Vulpescu. The problem is whether the Romanian and the international historical novel presents some markers typical of feminine authorship. The answer is negative, even if the lesson offered to the female writers by women’s history, as a research area, is not deprived of consequences. The existence of some feminine authorial markers would presume the existence of a feminine essence which is still, eternally recognizable, and impossible to grasp by those of other genders. Rather, there is a certain positionality, a taste for female characters with a strong personality, some preferences, tendencies towards a presentation of history as women’s history, as well. Sarah Dunant tends to reconstruct the past according to the present taste for political correctness, for the marginalized groups, be they prostitutes or individuals with disabilities. On the other hand, Ojog-Braşoveanu and Ileana Vulpescu combine women’s history with the tropes of the nationalist discourse.

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