Maria Spiridopoulou

Maria Spiridopoulou is Associate Professor in French Literature at the department of French Language and Literature of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature entitled «La typologie de la métaphore nominale dans la poésie surréaliste française et grecque: sa nouvelle identité et ses figures de l’innovation» (327 pp.). She has taught at the Greek Open University, at the University of the Peloponnese, at the Department of Modern Greek Studies of the University of Padova, at the Department of French and European Studies of the University of Cyprus. Her research interests revolve around women’s writing and gender studies, comparative literature, surrealism, travel writing, nineteenth- and twentieth-century French, Francophone and Italian literature.

She is General Secretary of the Administrative Committee of the Greek and the International Comparative Literature Association. She got a research fellowship of Fondation Maison Sciences de l’Homme with the Programme “Directeurs d’Etudes Associés” (DEA) 2023. She is the author of three monographs, History and Theory of Literary Genres, Athens: Callipos, 2016; History and Dramaturgy of European Theatre from the Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century, Athens, Callipos, 2016; L’Œuvre et le fonds littéraire de Gisèle Prassinos, Athens: Printa, 2017.

Project

Title :  Subversive and “feminist” fairy tales from the 17th century

"This research project aims to study female authors of the late 17th century who wrote fairy tales of remarkable quality, demonstrating their efforts to break out of the private and intimate sphere and cease to be marginalized. However, it should be noted that, despite the undeniable presence and predominance of women in this literary genre, only the names of Perrault, Nodot, and the Chevalier de Mailly have been retained by the history of French literature of this period, whose literary canon has consigned these exceptional authors to the most ungrateful oblivion. A number of women authors contributed to the flourishing of the genre: Mlle L'Héritier, Madame d'Auneuil, Madame de Murat, Madame Durand, Mlle de la Force, Catherine Bernard, Madame 'Aulnoy, to name but a few. Their tales are published either in collections or embedded in frame stories or frame novels or in other narratives such as travelogues. Their writings are, moreover, characterized by some critics as “feminist” (Dejean, 2020, 487-78). In general, we believe that the author of the fairy tale defends the imagination for its own sake, without concern for edifying or teaching lessons in good manners and morality, while challenging male hegemony and traditional values of marriage." 

Hosting institution : Université Sorbonne Paris Nord 

Selective Bibliography

• « L’écriture-femme et les avatars de l’autofiction dans l’Amour la fantasia, d’Assia Djebar », in Littérature interculturelle en Europe. Nouvelles Perspectives : Migration, écriture féminine et autofiction, Margarita Alfaro, Beatriz Mangada, Ana Belén (éd.), 2024, Peter Lang, pp. 59-70.
• « Les modalités de l’humour explosif dans les récits automatiques de Gisèle Prassinos », in “Tu es drôles pour une fille” : Funny Women in French, from the Salon to Youtube, Cheryl Morgan (ed.), 2024, Women in French Studies, vol. 32, Special Issue on Humour, pp. 82-99.
• « Configurations de l’espace et déambulations narratives dans Ombre sultane d’Assia Djebar », Σύγκριση/Comparaison, no. 33, pp. 313-323.
• «Aspects de l’identité diasporique dans l’œuvre narrative de Gisèle et Mario Prassinos» [«Εκφάνσεις της διασπορικής ταυτότητας στο αφηγηματικό έργο της Ζιζέλ και του Μάριου Πράσινος»], Διαχρονικές και Συγχρονικές Όψεις της Ελληνικής Διασποράς, Γ. Φραζής (επιμ.), 2024, Darwin University, τ. 3, pp. 571-584.