Agathe Giraud. 'Victor Hugo ... feminist?'

During his lifetime VIctor Hugo fought for the rights of women and his writings have long been invoked to support that cause. Nowadays, however, attention sometimes focuses more on Hugo's private life as demonstrating the opposite of that same struggle. By this argument, his 'appetite' for women would serve to prevent readers from placing a naive faith in his message. This lecture examines the ambiguities inherent in this contemporary viewpoint.
Agathe Giraud is lecturer in modern litarature, doctor of French literature and senior lecturer at the University of Besançon.