Abstract
Written simultaneously for the insiders and outsiders of Natalie Barney's Académie des Femmes, Djuna Barnes's cryptic, playful Ladies Almanack publicizes the coterie's private lives and loves. By positing Barnes's text as a descendent of Les Caquets de l'accouchée, an early work of gossip literature, this essay shows how Barnes critiques and subverts social norms through the seemingly trivial chatter of women's talk. In so doing, she underscores the significance of women's words, redefines the boundary between the public eye and the private life, turns gossip toward progressive ends, and establishes powerful, long-lasting communities of readers and critics.
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