Intertextual Conversations:
The Love-Letter and the Footnote
in Madame de Graffigny's
Lettres d'une Pbruvienne
Aurora Wolfgang
H
ighlighting the mix of genres and genders in Franqoise de Graffigny's Lettres d'une Plruvienne, Andre Le Breton described the
heroine of her novel, Zilia, as an "Usbeck en jupon."l The hybrid nature
of the text has fuelled an ongoing debate among critics over the last three
centuries as to whether this slim volume belongs to the ranks of the sentimental novel or the philosophical one, two seemingly antithetical genres.2
Most critics, however, have failed to examine the extent of the deliberI Andd Le Brelon. Le Romon f r m p t s o u X V I rick
~ ~ (Pans SoclLC d'lmpnmnc el de Pbwnc.
1898). quoted m Pascale S V Dewy. "Mesdams de Tcncrn el dc Grafligny. deur mmanchrer
oubl&r de I'Ccole des murs sennblcs" IPhD dtsunaflon. Rtce Umven~ty.1976). p 202
2 Numerous literary critics have analysed astutely the complex relalions between Lcnns d'unc
P h v i c n w and the works of Guilleragues and Mantesquieu, as well as tlie traditions to which
they belong. See Janet G. Altman, '%raffigny's Epistemology and the Emegencc of Third-World
Ideology." Writing the Fcmnlc %ice, ed. Elizabeth C. Goldsmith (Bosfon: N d w t e r n University Press. 1989). p p 172-202, and "Making Room for 'Peru': Graliigny's Novel Reconsidered,"
D i l e m m s d u Ronurn, ed. Catherine Lafarge (Stanford: Anma Libri. 1989), pp. 33-46, Nancy K.
Miller, "The Knot, the Letter, and the Book: Grafligny's Peruvian Letters." Subject to C h g c
(New Yo& Columbia University Ress. 1988); t i e m Harimaan. "lmLctfm P&uviems dam
I'histoire du mman 6pistolaire." Vicgr du solri@llr des LumM&ms:
l a "Pdruvirm" dc Made Gmflgny rl ses "Suird (Slrasbourg: Presses universitairrs & SVasbaurg. 1989). pp. 93109, Julia V. Douthwaite, 'The Exotic Olher Becomes Culfural Critic: Montesquieu's Lenm
Persanes and Madame & Graffigny's Lcnrcs d'une PCnrviem," Ehric Womn: tiferav Heminrs mrd Culmml Strategies in Anden RIgim Fmner (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
k s . 1992); and Katharine Ann Jensen, "Wrifing as a Peruvian or How Women Came to
Be Epistolary Novel: Prangoiac de Gmfligny." Writing Love: Lcncrs, Womn and the Novel in
Fronee. 1605-1776 (Cdondale: Southern Illinois University Ress. 1995).
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 10, Number I, October 1997
16 EICHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
ate interplay of the two modes. Graffigny composed a sentimental novel
that she situated in the world of erudition by combining the sentimental novel illustrated by Guilleragues's Lettres portugaises and the novel
of social satire exemplified by Montesquieu's Lettres persanes, thereby
linking the two literary traditions by intertextual reference. To gain a
better understanding of Graffigny's bilingual Lettres d'une Pe'ruvienne,
we need to look to the mixed-gendered literary world of Parisian salons which so profoundly shaped the author and French letters of the
period.'
In recent years, salon culture and the notion of sociability have emerged
as the defining elements of the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment.
Daniel Gordon claims that during the reign of Louis x l v the "social" was
invented as a "distinctive field of human experience," an ethos that idealized communication and bestowed meaning and dignity on the cultured
men and women living in an absolute monarchy .' As Dena Goodman further suggests, the pursuit of knowledge during the Enlightenment became
inextricably linked to the social world and its practices, especially salons;
adding that "since sociability was understood to be mixed-gender and
womancentered, the collaboration of women in completing the tasks of
philosophy was also implied. ... The French Enlightenment was built on
the complementarity of 'feminine' sensibility and 'masculine' r e a s ~ n . " ~
Most of the principal philosophes praised the benefits of intellectual
exchange promoted through worldly conversation. In Histoire de la conversation, Bmi~eDeschanel summarized the perceived benefits for both
sexes:
Tout Ie monde gagna h ce commerce. Si Ies femmes donnerent aux hommes la
politesse, l'bl&gance,le tact, les hommes leu donnhrent, en retour, des lumi&res,
des connaissances, un savoir tout fait. Les let!& deviment gens du monde, les
3 Cralliply's novel &splays he dual dlswwse rhar "embod~esthe social. I,terary, and cultural
kntager of boUI he muted and the daninant." uhich Elaine Showalter finds charmeristic of
all women's untmg.
- See "Ferninst Cnllctrm in he Wilderness." Cnncol I n g.u m. (1981). 201
4 Daniel Gordon, Ciritcnr withour Sovsnignry: Equoiiry ond Sociabiliry in French Thought, 16701789 (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1994). p. 5.
5 Dena Goodman, Tlu Republic of L n e r r (Ithaca: Comell University Ress. 1994). pp. 8-9. In
examining the role of salomiPns during the French Enlightenmnt, Gwdman persuasively argues that "female selflessness" complemented and controlled the "male ego" in salon interaction.
Nonelheless, numerous women who parlicipated in salon society asserted their own views in a
different venue: through their writings.
LOVE-LETTERS A N D FOOTNOTES IN L E T T R E S D ' U N E P E R U V I E N N E 17
gens du monde devinrent lettr6s. Ainsi la fusion se fit entre le savoir et le
savoir-vivre, entre les id& et les formes, entre la science et la vie; ainsi se
dtveloppkent, I'une par I'autre, la politesse litttraire et la politesse s~ciale.~
Conversation with women was understood as the means by which men
acquired the linguistic skill necessary to transform their unrefined knowledge into topics for cultured conversation, for, as Madeleine de Scud6ry
claimed, "il y auroit quelque chose de trop 616vC de trop sGavant, de sec,
de rude, ou d'affect6."' Molihre's Philaminte notes that the union of refined language and high learning was central to salon culture: "Qu'on y
veut rCunir ce qu'on sipare ailleurs, Meler le beau langage et les hautes
sciences."8 Fontenelle's wildly successful Entretiens sur la pluralite' des
mondes was an early example of a philosophical work reflecting salon
society; he gave his astronomy lesson the form of a gallant conversation between a sophisticated philosopher and a charming marquise. In
his preface, Fontenelle claimed to seek a linguistic middle ground between the worlds of the salon and the academy: "J'ai ach6 d'amener [la
philosophie] B un point oil elle ne fat, ni trop shche pour les gens du
monde, ni trop badine pour les savans."9 Under women's linguistic influence, men of letters developed new means of engaging more members
of high society, including women, in the innovative ideas and scientific
advances of the day. Indeed, Rend Descartes wrote his Discours de la
me'thode in French because he wanted to include women as readers.luThe
linguistic graces and social exigencies of worldly women not only introduced men's learning into polite society, but effectively wrestled it
away from the exclusive domain of colleges and academies from which
women were barred."
6 Bmi~eDeschanel. Hirtoim dc h conversation (Wris: M. Levy. 1857). pp. 3&31.
7 Madeleine de Scudery, Conversations sur divers sujets, 2 vols (Wris: Claude B d i n , 1680).
1:243.
8 Molihn, Les Frmmer savnntcs (1672; Paris: Lamusse, 1965). p. 92 (au3, scene 2, lines 872-73).
9 Fonlenelle, (EuvnscompUtes, ed. G.-B. Depping (Genkve: Slatkine Reprints, 1%8), p. 3. Indeed,
numemus eighlecnth-century philosophcs imitated Fontenelle's blend of fiction and philosophy,
worldly conversation and intellectual nssoning, for example, Didem in b R6vc dc d'Alembsn
(1769. oublished 1830) and Entmticn d'un ahilosoohe nvrc h mrreholc de "* (1775).
,
. In
addition. serentific treatises were wrinea emlicitlv far female sudien-for
examale.
Franeesco
~~~~,
.~~~~
~ l g m t t ; . ~ ~ c n r o n # M r . m r p olrr&&(l7~7.
vr
Frenchnannlarm 17381; JCr6mcde Lalande.
Aslmom,e&r dnmrr (1786). and the B~blrolhiqurunnrrrdlcdrr domcr (1783-97) See Mtchel
Delon. "La marquise el le philosophe." Retw dcsScmcer H m m l 54. no 182 (1981). 65-78
10 See Claude Dulong, "From Conversation to Creation." A History of Women in the Wew 111.
Rcnoirs~ccond Enlightenment Paradoxer, ed. Nathalie Zemon Davis and Arletle Parge (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993). pp. 408-9.
I I See Erica H h ,Cartesian U b m : Ursions andSubvcrsions flRarionol Discours. in the Old
Rqims (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1992).
~
~
~~~~
~~~~
~
18 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
Men of letters openly acknowledged their debt to women's conversation for helping to shape the language, address, and form of their works.
In his article "Sur les femmes," Didemt describes, albeit condescendingly, the process by which discussion with women transforms men's
style: " [ L a femmes] nous accoutument encore B mettre de l'agkment
et de la clartC dans les matibres les plus tpineuses. On leur adresse sans
cesse la parole, on veut en Etre CcoutC, on craint de les fatiguer ou de les
ennuyer, et I'on prend une facilitC particulibre de s'exprimer qui passe
de la conversation dam le style."12 Even David Hume, after discovering that his works stirred little interest, turned to the essay form which
blended what he called the "learned" and the "conversable" minds. Only
in the presence of "the Fair Sex, who are the Sovereigns of the Empire of Conversation," he claimed, could men of learning develop this
compelling style.I3 Diderot's "particular method" born of the interchange
between women and men in conversation was at the heart, it would seem,
of the enormous popularity of Enlightenment authors."
If literary men gained celebrity with their engaging new style, what did
women writers take away from this salon exchange? How did they fit into
this larger conversation? Were learned women simply offered the supporting role of charming interlocutors or arbiters of taste, of consumers of
knowledge rather than its producers? Gordon has recently argued in the
affirmative: for the philosophes "women were ideal readers, correspondents, and interlocutors on account of their intellectual limitations. They
could understand philosophie, but because of their restricted formal education and the prejudice against their making a literary career, they
could not be phi lo sop he^."'^ But what Gordon fails to see in the male
philosophes' "quest for integration" into society are the women who
sought integration into the ranks of the philosophes, despite social prejudice against their admission. Fran~oisede Graffigny is one such woman in
the new Enlightenment salon culture of the mid-eighteenth century who
attempted to engage the world of knowledge and cultural critique. From
12 Denis Diderot. "Sur les f e r n s . " (Euvrcs, t o m 1 (Paris: Robert Lalfont, 1994). p. 961.
13 David Hnme, Essays: Mornl, Political, ond Irrcmry, 2 vols (London: Longman's. Green and
Company, 1889). 2367.
I4 Only Rousseau, counrering the ideals of the pkilosophcs, condemned the profound inreUccNal
influence of women on m u who frequented their salons. In LcIIm d d'Alcmbcn he rails against
polite sociely in which men an forced to speak simplistically and gallantly to please women:
"Nos cercles conscrvent encore parmi nous quelque image des maeurs antiques. Les hommes
entn eux.. d i s o e n a de rabaisser leurs id& h la no&
des femmes et d'habiller ealamment
la raison. peuvent se livrer h des discours graves et Serieux sans crainte du ridicule" (Paris:
Flammarion. 1967). p. 202.
IS Gordon. p. 192.
.
-
L O V E - L E T T E R S A N D FOOTNOTES I N LETTRES D'UNE P ~ R U V I E N N E 19
her twenty-year correspondence with her male friend Devaux, we know
that she was intensely engaged in the world of letters, widely read, passionately interested in the theatre, an editor and promoter of her friend's
literary endeavours, and a contributor to the collective writing projects
of the salon she frequented. As a participant in the intellectual and social life of the Enlightenment, Graffigny exemplifies the cultured Clite
open to the world of ideas.16
Whereas men of letters successfully integrated feminine models of sociability, learned women had a far harder time appropriating the language
of intellectual inquiry, as they unsettled deeply held beliefs about gender. Even the men who supported women's intellectual endeavours could
feel threatened by them. For example, the literary critic Elie FrCron cited
the following passage from MoliBre's Les Femmes savanres (1672). to
begin his 1749 book review of the Letrres d'une Pdruvienne:
Je consens qu'une femme ait des c l d s de tout;
Mais je ne lui veux point la passion choquante
De se-rendre seavante afin @&re spavan&;
Et i'aime aue souvent aux auestions au'on fait.
~ l l kspchd ignorer les choles qu'elle'spait;
De son Ctude enfin je veux qu'elle se cache,
Et qu'elle ait du savoir, sans vouloir qu'on le scache;
Sans citer les Auteurs, sans dire de grands mots,
Et clouer de I'esprit I? ses moindres propos."
MoliBre's sardonic comedy poignantly reveals the contradictory, if not
hostile, attitude of French society towards educated women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. FrCron, an anti-philosophe, accepted,
on the one hand, that women should be educated; yet, on the other hand,
he claimed that educated women should not openly display their knowledge. Despite the support of many philosophes for women's intellectual
emancipation and despite the eminent place women held in the philosophical salons of the Enlightenment, French society, as a whole, was
deeply ambivalent about intellectual women.
Although Graffigny adhered to the widely accepted feminine literary
model of love-letters, her novel was also explicitly associated with those
16 See Judith Cllltis. "Anticipating Zilia: Mme de Graffigny in 1744," Femmes savanles, femme*
d'esprit: French W o r n Inlcllccluds of Ihe Eighrcenlh Ccnmq (New York: Peter h g , 1994).
17 Elie Catherine Pdron. Lenres sur quelques h i t s dc ee temps 1749-1752 ((Gen.?ve: Slatkine
Reprints, 1966). 1:26. References are to this edition.
20 EIOHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
of the philosophes. Fdron noted that the novel came in both serious
and frivolous forms: "Nous avons presque autant de romans de morale,
de philosophie et de politique que nous en avons dans le genre frivole"
(8:21). Mme de Graffigny's writing was apparently placed among the
more serious sort, for Fr6ron proclaimed in his journal, on 15 April
1749, that the Lettres d'une Phvienne was among one of the "meilleurs
livres de morale, de philosophie et de pdsie" (1:26), and that the natural
morality that she promoted was a "saine philosophie" (1:31). Nancy K.
Miller remarked that "to invoke the genre of the philosophe may be
read as a desire to be counted if not among the philosophers-at least
among the authors who count; a producer, then, not merely of novelsa genre abundantly associated with women in the eighteenth century-but
of kn~wledge."'~
Within her fiction, Graffigny employs a most ingenious and effective
strategy for integrating two separate and gendered spheres of knowledge. The love-letters that make up the body of the text are written
by the heroine Zilia to her lost Prince Aza, and describe her experiences and cultural observations as a Peruvian captive in French society.
The heroine's expressions of undying passion for her prince provide the
forum for her running commentary on the contradictions of French society and her place within it as a woman. Although Zilia's letters are
written from ar. anthropological perspective, they are the uninformed
observations of a foreigner. Only in the margins of the love-letters, displaced from the reader's focus of attention, does the author display her
scholarship. Graffigny invoked a male tradition of philosophical critique
through her scholarly apparatus--a preface, historical introduction, and
footnotes-but distanced this apparatus from the sentimental letters by
placing it in the margins and assigning it to an editor. In this way,
Graffigny effectively dissociated her heroine from the ridiculed femmes
savantes of Molikre's comedy.
Surprisingly, Graffigny's scholarly paratexts have received little critical commentary. This neglect is all the more startling because one rarely
finds footnotes in a work defined as a novel of love-letters-especially
notes that add historical or philological information as in a scholarly
18 Miller, p. 131. Graffigny clearly aligned her intellechral interests with U m c of the philosophes.
English Showalter has noted that "she had absorbed the liberal philosophy of the Enlightenment
so thoroughly that when she read Locke in November 1738, to be ready for Cirey, she was astonished fo discoyer that she had a l ~ a d ythought everything he said," and that "her moral values
were oriented toward the world of ideas and creativity, not toward tradition," "The Beginnings
of Madame de Graffigny's Literary Career: A Study in the Social History of Literahlre," Essay.~on the Age of Enlighrmenr in Honor of Ira 0.Wade (Genbve: Librairie Dmz. 1977). p.
298.
work.I9 As Claude Aveline notes apropos of the Lenres portugaises: 'kn
livre qui parle d'amour ne peut pas avoir de notes en bas de page, ni
m€me de renvois dans le texte: il ne demande qu'h se faire aimer, lui
a u s ~ i . "And
~ yet if Grafligny's text elicits the love of its readers, it also
demands respect. By inscribing the genren of scholarly annotation into
her fiction, the author links her work to a specifically male tradition of
erudition. Shari Benstock has noted: "The world of scholarship, erudition,
endowed knowledge, preceptorship has been by birthright (i.e., by law)
the domain of the man, who from earliest times scrawled marginalia, notations, graffiti, inscriptions in languages to which he was the legitimate
heir; the woman remained outside this process of scripture."n Moreover, Graffigny doubly inscribes her text into the masculine tradition of
knowledge by citing exclusively mde authors in her notes: Montesquieu,
Voltaire, Montaigne, and Garcilaso de la Vega. The novel's paratextual
frame continually points to outside (male) references. Citation allowed
Grafligny to include her endeavour in certain philosophical debates be.gun before her time and continued through her work. The prominence
of Grafligny's intertextual references strongly suggests that the author
wished to situate her novel within a tradition of literature and philosophical thinking as well as within a tradition of amorous discourse.
The paratextual framing of Zilia's letters tips the scale in favour of a
philosophical-as opposed to a sentimentd-reading of this novel.
After the tremendous success of her first edition in 1747, Graffigny
reinforced the scholarly aspects of her novel for the second edition published in 1752. In addition to significant (approximately 180) stylistic
changes, her second edition included two new letters of social criticismletters 29 and 34-and two new references to works already mentioned
in the Avertissement. To Montesquieu's famous quip, "Comment peut-on
&tre~ersan?'," Graffigny appended the reference, "Leffresper~anes."~~
When mentioning that "Un de nos plus grands pdtes a crayonnC les
19 In t k two most popular examples of novels using footnotes in eighteenth-century fictionRousseau's La Nouvcllc H6Ioisr and Lafloa's h i s o w danpmuses--1he lootncies pliy a pndominantly pseudo-editorial function. POI an illuminating analysis of foohotrs in Tom Jones.
Trisfmn S h d y , and Fi-gon's
W&, see Shari Benstoek. "A1 the Msrgins of D i s c o m :
Fwmotes in the Fiaional Text," P M U 98 (1983). 204-24.
20 Clavde Aveline. Ef four le msfc (Paris: Mereure de France. 1951). p. 249.
21 Gerard Owate calls foomotes a "genre" in S a i l s (Paris: Seuil. 1987). p. 293.
22 Benstoek, p. 218.
23 Frangoise de Graffigny,Lcnms d'unc PCruvirme, intm. by Joan Wean and Nancy K. Miller
(New Yo*: Modem Language Associstion of A m r i c a 1993). p. 3. References. by page and
letter number, are to this edition. Footnote numbers within quotation marks (repmduad in a
slightly larger lypc face) are from M m de GraRigny's edition.
22 E I G H T E E N T H - C E N T U R Y F I C T I O N
maeurs indiennes dans un pobme dramatique," she cited in her note
Voltaire's Akire (p. 4). While in the Avertissement to her first edition
the fictive editor simply claimed that Peruvian history was "entre les
mains de tout le monde" (p. 3). in her second edition Graffigny inserted
a six-page "Introduction historiquew-including seven new footnotes citing other authors who wrote about Peruvian history and the exploitation
of Peruvians by Europeans-thus placing a concise, abridged history of
Peru in the hands of her reader^.^
Graffigny was greatly influenced by Garcilaso de la Vega's Histoire
which was the only work of culture cited in the footnotes to
des Ynca~,'~
Zilia's letters. Completed in 1616 (French translation 1633, a re-edition
appearing in 1744). this history sewed as the factual basis and inspiration
for Graffigny's fictional text. Although it is a purely historical account
of Peruvian history, Garcilaso's project seems to have contributed to
the shape of the Lettres d'une Piruvienne. Most critics claim that the
author simply used it to lend her novel some local colour.26 However,
unlike the other chroniclers of Peruvian history, Garcilaso had a twoworld heritage as his name indicates: Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. The
historian's mother was an Incan princess and his father one of the first
Spanish conquistadors; it is from the double perspective of a native and
a Spaniard that he wrote his Peruvian history. In part 1, he recounted the
history of the Incan civilization imparted by his mother's family and, in
part 2, the history of the Spanish conquest and the colonization that he
witnessed. Because Garcilaso had learned to read the Incan quipos from
his mother's family and to read and write Spanish from his father's, he
was able to mediate between his maternal and paternal cultures, and he
wound up interpreting his mother's culture for his father's people, the
European conquerors.27
24 Graffigny's "Introduction historique," added in 1752, was attributed by Franpis-Antoine
Chevrier in 1754 to her disciple and admirer Antoine Bret. Georges NoEl cndiu Bret as well
in his biography. Unc "Primitive" odiide de i'deob des "eaurs sensible" Madam Graflgny
(1695-1758) (Paris: Plon, 1913, p. 3W. Whether or not Bret wntributed to the Intmduction,
Grathgny c e m n l y exercised her authorial control over its content. This possible collaboration.
as English Showalter has pointed out, could be a case of what loan Dehan calls "salon writing." See Joan Delean. Tmder Grogr(~phics:W o m n and the Origins of the Novel in Fr-c
(New Yo&: Columbia University Ress. 1991).
25 Garcilaso de la Vega, Hisloin &s Yncar (Paris:Prault. 1744).
26 Julia V. Douthwaite, however, intimately wnnects Graffigny's fiction to Garcilaso's history.
In Exoric Women, she stresses Grathgny's manipulation of a mythical and idealiled version
of Peruvian history: "Revising the Ieyenda ncgra to suit Grathgny's purposes, the 'historical
intmduction' vanslates the Spaniards' conquest of Peru into the metaphorical rape of a weak
and vulnerable, but highly desirable (feminine) land," pp. 11&11.
27 For a discussion of the foreignness of language in Gmthgny's work, see Laurence Mall, "Langues
LOVE-LETTERS A N D FOOTNOTES IN L E T T R E S D ' U N E P E R U V I E N N E 23
LRttres d'une Pe'ruvienne reflects a similar dual heritage; it contains
two parts: letters 1 to 17 were supposedly woven, in the Incan fashion, with quipos or knotted coloured cords, and letters 18 to 42 were
written in the French language. Having become fluent in her captor's language, the character Zilia also finds herself in a mediating role between
the two cultures, as reflected in the novel's "bilingual" form. Indeed, Zilia
must translate her own quipos-woven letters for the French reading public. Through their writings, both Garcilaso and Graffigny lodge protests
against the dominant culture that treated Indians and women as inherently inferior.z8In her Avertissement, Graffigny writes: "Nous mkprisons
les Indiens; B peine accordons-nous une b e pensante B ces peuples malheureux" (p. 3). And in her critique of women's education, her heroine
remarks: "Au peu de soin que l'on prend de leur h e , on serait tent6
de croire que les Franpis sont dans I'erreur de certains peuples barbares qui leur en refuse uneW(139:34).According to the author, both
Indians and women have been denied the ability to think and to reason,
and thus, their humanity. The Avertissement and Introduction historique
reinforce this critique by specifically refemng to works of European culture that defend the integrity of Peruvians and other foreign nations,
including fiction (Voltaire's Alzire and Montesquieu's Lettres persanes),
history (Dissertations sur les peuples de l'Ame'rique29 and Pufendorfs
Intmduction ri ['histoire ge'ne'rale et politique de l'universw),and philos6uangLres et dlrangefe du langage dans Les Lenrcr d'une Pdwviehnc de M m de Grafigny [sic],"
Studies on Volrnin and the Eighteenth Cenrnry 323 (1994). 32343; and "Traduction et originel
dans les Learcs d'une PCruvicnne de Graffimv." R o m c c Quanrrlv 44 (IW7). 13-23. See also
Madeleine Dobie, " m e Subject of ~riting:ianguage. ~ p i & n o l o g yand ldeiily in the Lenrcs
d'une Pdnrvia~c."Eighteenth Cenlury (Spring 1997).
28 Garcilaso de la Vega did not simply chronicle the rise and fall of Incan civilizafion, he also
wished to vindicate himself and his mother's race by proving the intellectual aptihlde of a
Peruvian Indian. In his preface, Garcilasa wrote: "We Indians are a people who are ignorant
and uninstructed in the ans and sciences." adding that if his own w o k is esleemd. 'Ct would
be a noble and magnanimous idea to carry this merciful consideration still funher and honor in
me all the mestizo Indians and Creoles of Peru so that on seeing a beginner receive the favor
and grace of the w i g and learned they would be encouraged to proceed with similar themes
drawn from their own cultivated geniuses." The Royal Cornmentaricr of the Inca. m d General
History of Pcru, uans, and intm. by H m l d V. Livemore (Austin and London: Univenity of
Texas hess. 1966). p. u v .
29 Although no work corresponding to this title (or to a chapter entitled "cddmonies et coutums
religieuses") has been located. English Showalter suspects thal the following work was intended: 1.-P. Bernard, Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de La Manini&re,et al., CCrPmonies ct coulums
religieuscs de tous lerpeuples du m o d e (Amsterdam 172?43), 8 vols.
30 Pufendorf, Introduction d I'hisloire gCn6role el politique dc I'univrrr (Amsterdam: Zlcharie
Chatelain. 1738). 7 vols. For this 1738 edition. Antoine-Augustin Bnrren de La Martiniere
wrote introduction d I'histoin dc I'Asie, dc I'Afriquue el dc I'Aminque, pour scrvir dc suited
I'hlroduction & I'histoin du Baron dc Pufcndorf (Amsterdam: Zacharie Chatelain, 1738). 2
VOlS.
24 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
ophy (Montaigne's Des Coches). Grafligny thus equated French racism
against Peruvian Indians with French men's sexism against women.
Through footnoting, the author bridges the divide between the French
and Peruvian cultures by ensuring that the reader will understand Zilia's
foreign vocabulary and customs. In the guise of the editor, Graffigny
brings her expertise as a Frenchwoman informed about Peruvian culture to bear on the heroine's letters. For example, when Zilia describes
Ddterville kissing her hand with "la m&me vdndration que nous avons
pour le sacd diad&me3I,"the footnote explains: "On baisait le diad6me de
Manco-Capac, comme nous baisons les reliques de nos saints" (395).
While the notes may ease the reader's task, the frequent use of footnoted Peruvian words, as well as the use of italics to set off these same
terms, serves as a graphic reminder within the French text of the origin
of Zilia's letters. In the sentence, "Quel que soit le ChaquiI6 fiele qui
te portera ce pdcieux d6pSt. je ne cesserai d'envier son bonheur" (21:1),
the use of the term Chaqui for "messager" reminds the reader of the foreign origin of the letters. Indeed, 80 per cent of the Peruvian terms can
be found in the first seventeen letters that were supposedly knotted with
the Peruvian quipos before Zilia mastered the French language.
It is Montesquieu's work, however, that served as Grafligny's model
for a fictional text with philosophical pretensions. L i e Montesquieu in
his Lettrespersanes, Grafiigny adds footnotes to interpret unfamiliar, foreign references for the French reader. Grafligny, however, uses footnotes
to a much greater extent and in a more serious manner than Montesquieu.
In the Learespersanes, the reader encounters 18 footnotes in 141 letters,
while in the Lenres d'une Pkruvienne there are 55 footnotes in 41 letters. Some of Graffigny's "lettres," such as the second, contain as many
as eight footnotes, while the later letters contain none. Notes are often laconic, defining in a few words a Peruvian term, such as "Capa-IncaI4,"
"Nom gdndrique des Incas dgnants" (20:l). Explanations about Peruvian
customs are more lengthy-for example, to Zilia's comment "J'ignorais
les lois de ton empire" is appended "Les lois des Indiens obligeaient les
Incas d'tpouser leurs sceurs, et quand ils n'en avaient point, de prendre
du
pour femme la p r e m i h princesse du sang des Incas, qui dtait
Soleil" (27:Z). On more than one occasion, the author impresses her authority upon the reader by adding the title, volume, and page number of
a reference. Through her marginalia, Frangoise de Graffigny projects her
serious philosophical claim.
Unlike Montesquieu, whose pseudo-erudite footnotes can add yet another touch of irony to his satirical letters, Graffigny brings significant
literary and historical authority to bear on the intellectual aspects of her
endeavour. For example, Montesquieu's first footnote to the Lettres persanes is found in a personal letter from Fatm6, a harem wife, to her sultan,
Uzbek: "Quand je t'6pousai, mes yeux n'avaient point encore vu le visage d'un homme; tu es le seul encore dont la vue m'ai 6te permise' : car je
ne mets pas au rang des hommes ces eunuques affreux dont la moindre
imperfection est de n'€tre point hommes." To this, the fictive translator of the Lettres persanes makes the annotation: "Les femmes persanes
sont beaucoup plus dtroitement gard6es que les femmes tuques et les
femmes indiennes."3' This note creates a distance between the voice of
the male translator, who presents objective knowledge about the Oriental
world, and the voice of the female letter-writer, Fatm6, who displays her
personal feelings. Moreover, the translator's note reinforces the voyeuristic position of the male reader in relation to this forbidden feminine (that
is, erotic) text. In sharp contrast, Graffigny's footnotes add validity to
the heroine's letters. When Zilia observes: "Avant que le Grand Mancoe(lt apport6 sur la tern les volont6s du Soleil, nos ancetres
divinisaient tout ce qui les frappait de crainte ou de plaisir," the footnote
documents the source of this information by referring the reader to one of
the most authoritative texts on Incan culture, "Voyez I'Histoire des Incas"
(395). With this gesture, Graffigny also explicitly addresses the "real"
or nonfictional world, linking her text to other texts, and establishing
herself as an author among authors."
Indeed, the scholarly references add an authoritative voice to the letters, and offer a striking counterpoint to the often nave or passionate
voice of the heroine.33 Zilia's metaphoric and poetic language, "Le menis
songe n'a jamais swill6 les lbvres d'un enfant du S ~ l e i I ! ~(29-30:3),
~"
distinctly contrasted with the editor's literal or objective language found
in the footnote, "I1 passait pour constant qu'un Wmvien n'avait jamais
menti" (30:3).The disembodied commentaries at the bottom of the page
sometimes coexist uneasily with the fervent voice of the letters, creating a contrast between the fictional and the factual, the personal and the
impersonal, the subjective and the objective. While Graffigny's narrative strategy may seek to integrate disparate and antithetical aspects of
31 Montesquieu, I r l t w s persmcs (Paris: Flammarion, 1964). p. 30.
32 Susan Sniader Lanser argues thal the n d v e s which refer solely to their own fictional vnivwses
will hold less discursive authority than the narmives which "expand the sphere of fictional
authority to nonfictional referents and allow the writer to engage, from 'within' the fiction, in
a cullun's Literary. m i d , and intellectual debate." Firtiom of Authoriry: W o r n Writers md
Narmrive Wce (Irhnca: Comell University Ress, 1992). p. 17.
33 The body of Grafligny's novel, the first-person narrstion of Zilia's letters, expresses a gendered
and subjective point of view, which Lanser terms a "personal voice." whthe scholarly
annotations are written from a Witionally masculine "authorial voice" (pp. 15-20).
26 E I G H T E E N T H - C E N T U R Y FICTION
the novel-the philosophical with the sentimental, the woman's narrative with the citations to male authors, the Peruvian with the French-the
footnotes inadvertently create disruptions for the reader. For example, in
her first letter describing the Spanish massacre, Zilia cries out: "Quel
ddsert aride a vu naiie des humains insensibles h la voix de la nature gdmissante? Les barbares makes d'Yalpor,I0 fiers de la puissance
d'exterminer!" (18:l). The superscripted numeral sends the reader's eyes
down the page to the footnote, where, as oblivious to Zilia's cries as the
heartless Spanish, the note laconically reports: "Nom du tonnerre." Not
only do Graffigny's footnotes break the narrative flow, their style is deliberately non-narrative. Short, often fragmented sentences written in a
syncopated rhythm, these footnotes interrupt the passionate and expansive klan of the ardent heroine. They are the very antithesis of the fervent
declarations of a feminine style. Thus, the editorial footnote imposes a
critical distance between the reader and the pathos of Zilia's letter.
Whether or not Graffigny was conscious of the disturbing effect of
the notes, she continued to reinforce the duality of the letters and footnotes in her later revision. The Introduction historique, added in 1752,
contains many of the details that had already been provided by the footnotes in the first edition. In almost a dozen instances the Introduction
furnishes information also appearing in the footnotes. Moreover, occasionally, information is repeated verbatim; the annotation "caciques,
espi?ce de gouverneurs de province" reappears three times in an essentially identical form: in footnotes to the Introduction and to letters 4
and 9. Despite the significant stylistic and substantive changes implemented for the second edition, Graffigny maintained the dual effect by
preserving her original footnotes.
Within the letters themselves, the reader continually encounters expressions of both the heroine's heart and her curious mind. These two realms
remain in conversation through the device of footnoting. Zilia's letters
represent the inner sanctum of writing, the immediate correspondence
of the heart, and self-reflection, as well as personal speculations about
the world. Yet, information gathered from reading books-the knowledge that enables critical contemplation of the world-is graphically
removed from the body of the letters and highlighted in the footnotes.
This coexistence of resources of the self and resources of the world finds
its equivalent in the adjoining spaces of the letters and the reference
footnotes.
Graffigny concludes her novel by reasserting that the ideal union between the sexes is one of intellectual partnership. Just as Zilia construes
L O V E - L E T T E R S A N D FOOTNOTES I N LETTRES D ' U N E P ~ R U V I E N N E27
Aza to be her ideal companion and reader, intimately invested in her survival and fostering her learning and intellectual curiosity, Wtewille too
must fit this model. Zilia explains to her enamoured suitor that their
alliance must be founded not on a fantasy image but on mutual understanding, shared purpose, and communication. Zilia clearly delineates the
role of each partner. "Vous me donnerez quelque connaissance de vos sciences et de vos arts," she tells Wtewille, and "je acherai de vous rendre
agrkables les charmes ndifs de la simple amiti6." She invites Ddterville to
relish with her, not desire, but the "plaisir d'&tre7'built on "une connaissance lkgbre, mais intdressante, de I'univers, de ce qui [nous] environne,
de [notre] propre existence" (167:41). This amicable arrangement replaces the sexual contract of domination with a social contract of shared
exploration of the self and the world," a model quite possibly inspired
by the intellectual companionship between the sexes relished by women
such as Graffigny in salon society.
Lettres d'une Piruvienne exemplifies in both plot and form the tensions
inherent for women writers in adopting a language of knowledge in
eighteenth-century France. Graffigny attempts to integrate sensibility and
reason by simultaneously offering the public a sentimental journey, while
crafting her novel as a work of knowledge and a voyage into the world
of ideas. Yet, the castle to which the heroine retreats in the end is an
architectural metaphor for the separate spheres contained in the novel.
Indeed, two rooms in the heroine's estate predominate: the French library
in which books authored by "hommes divins" reside; and adjoining it,
the Peruvian temple in which painted Virgins line the walls, covered with
mirrors to inspire self-reflection and encourage a retreat into the inner
sanctum of contemplation. Both the outer consideration of the universe
of the scholar and the inner reflection of the letter writer are affirmed
by Graffigny as essential, each a necessary means of comprehending
the world. Although these two rooms are under one roof, and are even
adjoining, they are nonetheless quite apart. Just as the heroine cannot
reside in two places at once, the reader cannot enjoy the love-letters and
contemplate the scholarly footnotes simultaneously. This symbolizes the
inherent separations-between disparate discourses, sexes, and voicesand magnifies the distance between them. Perhaps these divisions speak
34 Zilia indicts French maVimonial unions when "les liens dc mariage ne soient kiprcques qu'au
moment de la c616bration. et que dam la suite les femmes seules y doivent Otre assujetties"
(144:34). Carole Pateman argues that "thc social contract is a story of freedom; the sexual
contract is a story of subjection'' and of "men's domination over women, and the right of men
to enjoy equal sexual access to women." The Sam1 Contract (Stanford: Stanford University
Press. 1988). p. 2.
28 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
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to Graffigny's ambivalence about genuine integration. Or perhaps, the
novel reflected what she could not escape, the contradictory attitude of
French society towards educated women.
Indeed, the already ambivalent attitudes towards learned women became even more hostile as the Enlightenment progressed. The possibility
of an intellectual partnership between the sexes that shone during Graffigny's day had grown dull by century's end. Numerous male writers
expressed intense anxiety about what they perceived as women's dangerous influence on society, leading to the confusion of sex roles. Most
adamant was the great critic of Enlightenment sociability, Rousseau. In
kmile (1762), he argued that a chasm should exist between the language
of men and women: "L'homme dit ce qu'il sait, la femme dit ce qui plait;
I'un pour parler a besoin de connaissance, et I'autre de go0t; I'un doit
avoir pour objet principal les choses utiles, I'autre les agdables. Leurs
discours ne doivent avoir de formes communes que celles de la v6rit1?."~'
Joan Landes asserts that Rousseau, and the Revolutionary Republicans
after him, feared the power of women's speech, and thus condemned
women's public role in the critical functions of French culture, offering
them a less vocal and less threatening role in the domestic sphere.%
By any standards, Lenres d'une Pdnrvienne was a resounding success
in France and throughout Europe; indeed, it was one of the eighteenth
century's outstanding literary events. Taking her cue from her contemporaries in the Republic of Letters, Franqoise de Graffigny capitalized
on the increasingly popular conversational aesthetic that defined learning as a social not a solitary endeavour, allowing feminine sensibility
to give shape to masculine reason, and taking for granted that women
and men could engage the world of ideas together. Zilia's letters captured what had become a way of life for many of the intellectual elite of
mid-eighteenth century French society-an ongoing intellectual exchange
between the sexes about their world and their relation to it.
California State University, San Bernardino
35 Jcm-Jacques Rousseau. Emile. PI&& (Paris: Gallimard. 1969). 4:718.
36 Joan Landes, Wbmn Md the Public Sphcn in the Age of French Revolution (Ithaca: Comell
University Ress. 1988). See also W l y n GuhviRh, Twilight of the Goddesses: Women
Representation in the Fnneh Revolutionary Era (New Bmnswick: Rulgers University Press.
1992).
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