Humor and eroticism in works written by contemporary female Spanish and French writers

Abstract

This paper presents the issue of humour in French and Spanish contemporary erotic literature and, especially, in works written by women. The women who are studied in this paper are Régine Deforges, Françoise Rey, Alina Reyes, and Catherine Millet for French literature and Mercedes Abad, Ana Rossetti, Almudena Grandes, and Isabel Franc for Spanish literature. In the first place, the conceptual approach of connecting humour and erotisism, two concepts between which it is possible to establish various analogies, has been used. In the second place, a thematic and formal study has been carried out to identify the main distinctive characteristics that humour takes on in the erotic works of the selected women. The ambiguity, the unexpected, and the unusual are characteristics that typify humour in erotic literature. The confusion of genders, transgressions of the traditional literary conventions, or a crisis that tears up the 'Me' are issues that appear in the erotic texts and in the milieu in which humour likes to be introduced. This paper shows that even though some small differences appear, it is possible to establish various connections between humour as shown in the contemporary erotic works written by French women and those written by Spanish women. Résumé: Cet article aborde la question de l'humour dans la littérature érotique contemporaine de langue française et espagnole et, essentiellement, dans les oeuvres écrites par des femmes. Les auteures qui font l'objet de cet article sont Régine Deforges, Françoise Rey, Alina Reyes et Catherine Millet pour la littérature française et Mercedes Abad, Ana Rossetti, Almudena Grandes et Isabel Franc pour la littérature de langue espagnole. Dans un premier temps, l'approche conceptuelle a été privilégiée pour mettre en relation l'humour et l'érotisme, deux concepts entre lesquels il est possible d'établir de nombreuses analogies. Dans un deuxième temps, une étude thématique et formelle a été menée pour identifier les