Female Intimacies in Seventeenth-century French Literature

Book excerpt: Examining literary discourses on female intimacy in seventeenth-century France, this study explores the effect of a homosocial and homopriviledged heritage on the deployment and constructions of female friendship and homoerotic relationships as thematic narratives in works by male and female writers. It reveals a new literary genealogy of female intimate bonds and adds to the research in lesbian and queer studies, fields in which pre-eighteenth-century French literary texts are rare.