The following thesis The Dichotomy of Female Characters in Le livre de Monelle by Marcel Schwob is an analysis of Le livre de Monelle, a collection of fairy tales by the symbolist writer Marcel Schwob, who lived between 1867 and 1905. Schwob, who was a prolific writer in his own time, remains a somewhat forgotten figure. He is completely unknown to the Slovenian reader, which is why one of the objectives of this thesis is to present the author and his work to the Slovenian audience. However, the main goal of this paper is to dissect the dichotomy of the female figure in the work, the dichotomy being that of the virgin and the prostitute, a widespread dynamic in the context of Western literature. Le livre de Monelle, or The Book of Monelle as translated to English by Kit Schluter, joins the seemingly opposite poles in the little prostitute, the key archetype that connects all the protagonists. The thesis delves into the particularities of said dichotomy and aims to connect them to the context of the time in which the author created the work, as well as to the context of his own life – furthermore, it is crucial to analyse the little prostitute in a specific biographical context as Schwob created the work after the death of his lover. Thus, the thesis also indirectly researches the author’s relationship with mortality, grief, and recovery. The result of such an analysis are passages translated to Slovene and a brief study of the language used in the work, which contributes to the understanding of the little prostitute.
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