Multilingualism of Speech and Sentiment in the Writings of Madame de Lafayette

This work is dedicated to the analysis of Madame de Lafayette’s creative legacy and the identification of the issue of multilingualism in 17th-century French literature. Particular attention is paid to the distinctive manner in which women are represented, as well as to the problem of non-uniformity of language, which is also pertinent to the Orientalist discourse of the writer. The study offers more substantiated arguments confirming the significant influence of the female voice in the salon culture, and also points to the development of multilingualism in secular society with the aim of creating its own tool for communication. It analyses the mechanisms of revision of women’s status and of the reception of the concept of woman as the Other and female self through the special design of language. An important focus of this paper is the ‘stereotyping’ of the Oriental woman, a concept that finds echoes within the modern secular context of French society and profoundly influences the untenability of monolingualism. This research constitutes a substantial addition to the scholarly discourse on women writers of the early modern period.