Michèle Roberts’s heroines and the act of writing consciously

Abstract

This article is devoted to describe the fictional evolution of the contemporary Anglo-French writer Michèle Roberts by comparing her novels to one of her more recent books: The Mistressclass (2003). Despite presenting some changes in her narrative style, this feminist author has maintained the presence of women as activists in her fiction. I have focused on how Roberts is inspired by real, canonised or historical female characters in order to create story bound protagonists that express their own conscious voices by means of the modern novel of consciousness. Most of Roberts’s heroines are usually unknown and marginal characters that are positioned at the centre of her narratives in order to rewrite their own stories. The personal story becomes necessarily vital to have access to the general history of women.