Image(s) des femmes en littérature de langue bretonne : du mythe biblique à la Bretagne mythique ?

Abstract

The mythical figures of the Virgin and Eve cast their shadows over twentieth-century Breton literature. Female characters seemed to be polarised between those who acted properly and those who acted badly, despite the fact the registers of values governing this evaluation changed over the course of the century. It is thus possible to study the emergence and dissemination of the myths of the Virgin and Eve in these texts. Did the Breton cultural actors and activists draw on the biblical myth in an attempt to construct another myth, the myth of Brittany? If so, does this mean twentieth-century Breton literature is a mythical literature? To answer these questions, the first part of this article proposes to define the meaning of ‘myth’. The second part presents the evolution of mythical Brittany through the lens of the image of women presented in Breton-language literature.

Keywords

• biblical myth
• gender
• representations
• lionisation
• Breton literature