Gender Shifts in Célestine by Genlis

Abstract

The novella Célestine (1813) by Félicité de Genlis is a secular rewriting of the legend of Saint Marina, a novice who disguises herself as a boy. This article aims to examine the onomastic and referential strategies employed by the author to portray the androgynous character and to facilitate the character’s gender transition—from female to male and back to female. For once, aided by the playful context of the mock diary La Feuille, in which the novella is embedded, Genlis sets aside her public persona as a devout Catholic and anti-Enlightenment moralist to present a story that is at once ambiguous, innocent, and daring.