The Mother/Daughter Relationship: A Dangerous Affair in Four Novels by Irene Némirovsky

Document Type : Original Article

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Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Department of French

Abstract

In the human sciences, the role of the mother, her place and her status remain a vast field of research, pointing to various sociological aspects and provoking emotions that are as excessive as they are contradictory. The Némirovskyian mother does not traditionally represent the sacrificial one, who fulfills her protective role with great dedication by being a maternal womb. On the contrary, it is strayed from its sacred path to become a destructive force. She is indolent, fickle and even threatening, a "monster" who devours her children: the embodiment of the total failure of maternal morality. In Nemyorvsky's work, the mother-daughter universe is not idealized, it is a relationship based on hatred, execration, and the suffering associated with it. The conflictual situation governs and the dissent is very noticeable. The latent rivalry between mother and daughter then evolves, giving rise to literary, societal, and psycho-affective questions. We then find ourselves in the presence of an important subject, highlighting the impact of this pernicious bond on the process of identity formation of the girl. We will therefore opt for four narratives focusing attention on this connection, namely, The Enemy (1928), The Ball (1930), The Wine of Solitude (1935), Jezebel (1936) and will focus on the stylistic analysis of this tensional relationship as a feminine writing process in Némirovsky's work.

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