Through the Filter of Ageing: Elsa Triolet, Mariama Bà and Maryse Condé

This thesis explores the portrayal of literary images of ageing women through selected works by Mariama Bâ. Maryse Condé and Elsa Triolet. It looks at different generations, nationalities, races and cultures, yet, through the common medium of French, whilst their approaches may differ, all three writers ultimately display a perhaps surprising consensus with regard to the various travails that beset women d’un certain âge. In particular, and reading through the concept of liminality, I demonstrate that these authors uphold the view that, consciously or sub-consciously, women in their midlife years do undergo a rite of passage, with the changes in a woman’s body being mirrored by changes in her identity: life is, at least for these authors’ female characters, different after the menopause.

Reading these novels through the filter of ageing, I explore how Elsa Triolet uses her characters to articulate, on a micro-level, her own fear and distress at the signs of deterioration of the physical body, whilst on a macro-level, and writing through a particularly turbulent period of history, her personal angst becomes a fear for the future of mankind. In contrast, both Mariama Bâ and Maryse Condé focus on the reconstruction of identity that is forced upon their characters as a result of their midlife crises, with lire resultant freedom from domination being expressed on various levels by both authors through their discourses on culture and identity.

At the start of the twenty-first century, with growing awareness of our increased longevity and all its consequences, ageing is a topical subject. Given that youth and beauty are seen as tire holy grails of modem society, ageing women can easily feel marginalised, yet I argue that these authors demonstrate how one can take on the challenge of building a new relationship with one’s changing body and successfully negotiate the passage of time.