The female world of picaresque literature

Considerations on female status in picaresque literature are principally limited to the Spanish literary production. We can simply note the absence of a comparative study dealing with female characters that fill the picaresque world of the countries where this literary genre mainly developed: Spain, France and England. The aim of this analysis is to propose an exhaustive comparison between the female characters of European picaresque novels of the classical period (16th to 18th centuries) . These characters are shown according to the different periods of a woman’s life: childhood, youth, the age of wife and mother and old age. The exploration of these different groups in which the female roles are constructed gives prominence to the important place these female characters occupy in the narration. Their respective tasks, behaviours and styles of interaction are analyzed in the different spaces and temporal contexts that are peculiar to them. The female representations created by the writers are often characterized by a disorderly mode of behavior. Whether they are victims of a sexist society or knowingly make bad choices, in the majority of cases, they are inexorably doomed to accept the condition of inferiority that is forced on them. Nevertheless, there is a category of women that do not want to accept the role that is expected by society and its institutions ; these set up a whole series of stratagems that permit them to work their way in a world dominated by male superiority.