A Lesbian “Memory of Texts”: “Lesbian Literature” as a Problematic and (Re-en)gendering Category

Until recently it would have seemed quite difficult, if not impossible, to study a category of history such as "lesbian literature" in France. 1 But over the past few years, a few scholars who have adopted that perspective have been met with a favorable response from the academic world. 2 In this context, positing such a category requires us to refashion the concept of intertextuality in a new and specific way.Audrey Lasserre speaks of a "palimpsest effect" in reference to the process whereby each new generation of authors and scholars "remembers" or "rediscovers" the "forgotten" or "invisible" women authors, while again neglecting to mention and study those others who, precisely, had been rediscovered before.By the expression "palimpsest effect, " Audrey Lasserre also refers to a certain way in which female authors and scholars claim to invent something new in order to exact revenge.The succession of these generations leads to a perpetual rewriting of history, which does not experience a continuous progression but rather is subject to gaps, revivals, detours, and a great deal of repetition. 3This is an interesting first element to analyze when studying lesbian literature written between 1969 and 1985.In this article I will examine the ambiguous relationships that French authors