Writing Ambition

Katharine Ann Jensen is professor in the Department of French Studies at Louisiana State University.

Chapter One, Rewriting for Moral Improvement: Genlis Competes with Lafayette Chapter Two, Friends and Writers: Annie de Pene and Colette Chapter Three, Exile, Loss, and Anxiety: Literary Ambition in Huston and Sebbar's Parisian Letters

In Writing Ambition: Relations between French Women in their Letters and Fiction, Katharine Ann Jensen explores women's relationships to authorship, to creativity, to other women writers, past and present, and to their readers. A renowned specialist of French women writers, especially of the early modern period, Jensen's latest book is the culmination of years of work and reflection on female literary creativity. The result is a new vision of literary history, one that incorporates the concept of female authorship as women themselves conceived of it. Throughout this book, Jensen's own strong authorial voice joins those of her female exemplar to refashion how we write about and analyze female literary production. Jensen provides a model for other scholars on how to do feminist scholarship. -- Faith E. Beasley, Dartmouth College