New Books in Literary Studies Michèle Schaal, "Grrrl Writing: Virginie Despentes's Authorial Politics" (Peter Lang, 2026)
Feb 24, 2026
Michèle Schaal, Professor of French and Women’s and Gender Studies and author of Grrrl Writing, explores Virginie Despentes’s punk‑infused authorial politics. She connects Riot Grrrl currents to Despentes’s novels. Short takes cover Baise‑moi’s picaresque reading, noir and materialist feminist angles, gender‑bending practices, and why biography and reception matter.
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Teenage Encounter Sparked Lifelong Scholarship
- Michèle Schaal first encountered Virginie Despentes as a teenager watching Canal Plus and recalls seeing Despentes on Nouvelle Parole which sparked long-term curiosity.
- That early personal encounter led Schaal to pursue Despentes across graduate research into a sustained scholarly specialization.
Grrrl Links Despentes To Riot Grrrl Punk
- Schaal uses the term Grrrl to link Despentes to Riot Grrrl punk and third-wave US feminism as a shaping influence on her authorial stance.
- She argues Despentes's writing is punk-infused beyond music: a political, cultural way of life that informs form and voice in her early novels.
Heteropatriarchy Is A Tentacular System
- Schaal defines heteropatriarchy as tentacular, intersecting gender with race, class, kinship, and economics rather than a simple binary system.
- She also insists 'punk' must be read beyond music as a sustained political-cultural praxis shaping Despentes's life and literary methods.
