Sophie Cottin’s Malvina and the question of women’s writing in early nineteenth-century France

This paper examines Sophie Cottin's novel 'Malvina' and the discussion within it over whether or not women should be allowed to write and publish novels. At a time when the public sphere of writing and publishing was to be reserved for men, Sophie Cottin uses recurring motifs of madness, infertility, myth, and landscape to draw attention to a female desire to conform to and/or escape society’s constraints. In analysing these motifs and looking at the progression of Cottin’s works, alongside her private correspondence, this paper investigates Cottin’s complicated views on women and writing.