The autobiographical novels of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Virginia Woolf: a comparative study

Abstract

Autobiographical mode of writing informs the works of many novelists, consciously or unconsciously. There are, however, diverse techniques for formulating these conscious or unconscious autobiographical interpolations in literary works. This essay aims to study the works of Sidonie-Gabreille Colette and Virginia Woolf to trace the nuances of the autobiographical mode in two contemporary female writers from different nations. We do not aim at proving that these two writers deploy the autobiographical mode in their writings, but how similar and different their autobiographical techniques in the creation of fiction are. Therefore, Colette's and Woolf's novels, in general, will be compared and contrasted with an eye on their self-defined strategies for the development of autobiographical fiction.