Desire and Punishment: Adolescent Female Sexuality in Three Novels

Abstract

Résumé: La représentation de la sexualité féminine ignore le désir et s'appesantit sur la fauté et la punition, double réalité que le roman sentimental tend à occulter. A. Altmann étudie trois romans contemporains qui presentent des cas de maternité non voulue, différents, certes, mais faisant ressortir la vulnérabilité des adolescentes. Summary: Social constructions of female sexuality have traditionally been short on desire and long on punishment. Romance has been the veil concealing the realities of both. Three contemporary novels for adolescents, read as a triptych, show pictures of sex and unwanted teenage pregnancy from three different perspectives, linked by a common understanding of the sexual vulnerability of adolescent girls.