Mobile Women in Virginie Despentes’s Apocalypse Bébé

Abstract

This article argues that, in a similar way to Baise-moi, the plot of Virginie Despentes’s Apocalypse bebe revolves around a female road trip. The mobility of the women on the road trip is read through the lens of Julia Kristeva’s theory of foreignness in Etrangers a nousmemes. Particular attention is paid to the development of the main character, for whom the road trip is the catalyst for her to recognise the otherness within herself and thus to develop a tolerance towards the foreignness of others. The article argues that, through its representation of female characters who are each transformed through mobility, the text portrays a range of performances of femininity and stages a number of female subject positions.