Destiny’s child

Abstract

AbstractIn Marivaux's La vie de Marianne (1731–1742), the classical concept of destiny is deployed to convey the singularity of the protagonist's existence and as a tool that allows for a critical articulation of the determinants of female existence. Common to both explorations is the underlying importance of accidents and other events of non‐choosing that engage with feminine agency as modalities of affordances. I argue that La vie de Marianne reveals another dimension of agentless destiny, pertaining this time to the primacy of an emerging economic logic, wherein, as Florence Magnot‐Ogilvy has recently shown, persons run the potential risk of becoming replaceable. Building on Magnot‐Ogilvy's and René Démoris's analyses of repetition and the doubling of female characters in La vie de Marianne, I show that social and economic fatum is combatted by Marianne, who distinguishes herself from other women, such as Mademoiselle Varthon and Tervire, by presenting herself not only as a singular voice whose power is enacted through storytelling, but as someone who has a greater destin, possessing worth and narrative interest. Marianne records her romanesque story in order to open a doorway into the contingencies of women's lives, while also taking ownership of herself as a product of literary self‐fashioning.