Énergies écoféministes chez Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

Abstract

This article offers a reading of two novels by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Femme forêt (2021) and Femme fleuve (2022), through the lens of ecofeminist theories. These theories invite us to reconsider a wide range of relationships by moving beyond binary epistemological frameworks that traditionally oppose concepts (mind/body, theory/experience, man/woman, culture/nature, etc.), while subordinating and instrumentalizing one term over the other. Ecofeminist thought, by contrast, seeks to interweave theory and practice, foregrounding the exchanges, flows, and reciprocal influences that connect beings, as well as thought and action. By foregrounding the polysemy of the term “energy,” this article first examines the narrators’ representations of both the desire for knowledge and sexual desire, before turning to specific motifs associated with sensation. The hand emerges as a dual symbol, evoking the tenderness of a caress alongside the force of action, while piquant—understood as a multisensory experience—disrupts boundaries between categories of living beings, emphasizing their shared capacities for regeneration, hybridization, and adaptability. On the whole, the article demonstrates how Barbeau-Lavalette’s two novels propose new ecofeminist ways of conceptualizing and imagining relationships among living beings.