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AbstractThe predilection Sand shows for self-possessed characters goes back to her decision to adopt a male identity as a writer. Self-control, according to her a masculine attribute, means power, and power is what the sandian character wants most, especially if it is a woman. René Girard's theory of mimetic desire proves to be remarkably relevant to the understanding of these masterful characters, who are obsessed with the aristocratic, Cornelian, heroic model, until the novelist discovers, with Lélia, that such mimetic rivalry leads only to madness and death. Sand's conversion to a religious socialism prompts her to switch to a new type, the kind-hearted, motherly character, inspired by Christ as a new model. This new type however does not succeed in eliminating the domineering propensity of its predecessor, nor the self-possessed character itself which, therefore, may be the typical sandian character after all, since it embodies the main characteristics of the sandian novel, most notably its intellectualism, and its artificiality.
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Inspired by nineteenth-century accounts of creation based on the figure of Prometheus, this article examines the feminization of the myth from George Sand to Rachilde. The novels Méphis by Flora Tristan and Monsieur Vénus by Rachilde are studied to understand how women novelists wrote about the mythical imagination embodied in Mary Shelley's modern Prometheus and the ways in which their texts depict the creation of Man and the difference between the sexes. Modern stealers of fire and demiurges, these authors also consider the liberation of the female character and call into question a culture centred on male norms. This study focuses on feminine power based on the critique of social institutions in these novels, a critique expressed via the love dynamic portrayed.