La coutume louable de l’écriture

Abstract This article examines the Responces from Catherine des Roches’ Secondes Œuvres (1583) with regards to the role that habit plays in the literary creation of women writers. The Responces , a genre in which women traditionally ‘answer’ men, reveal insights into the author’s literary exchange with her contemporaries, among whom were also women poets. Catherine des Roches reinterprets this genre by addressing both men and women and, furthermore, by using the Responces addressed to other women writers to communicate exclusively with women. Moreover, Catherine des Roches stresses the habitualization of the writing practice in order to prove the virtuousness of women writers on the one hand, and to engage in female community-fashioning through networking and mutual praise on the other hand.