French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Cossy, Alice Rivaz. Devenir romancière
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Valérie Cossy

Alice Rivaz. Devenir romancière

Geneva: Editions Suzanne Hurter, 2015

Format 17 x 23 cm / 304 pages in 4 colors

113 color and black-and-white illustrations.

Publisher's overview:

Created in collaboration with the Association Mémoire de femmes and Editions Suzanne Hurter, this introduction to Alice Rivaz aims to offer a fresh reading of her work. By anchoring her writing in its historical context, it invites general readers—the very audience she wrote for—to discover or rediscover her work. The book highlights her literary features while situating her output within the broader history of the 20th century, with which her writing was in constant dialogue.
A prominent figure in French-Swiss literature, the first woman to receive the Ramuz Prize for her complete works, and a recipient of the "Genève reconnaissante" medal awarded by the City of Geneva in January 1997, Alice Rivaz is the author of novels and essays that are now available in paperback, and are widely read and taught in high schools and universities. Her work has also been the subject of a significant study by Françoise Fornerod: Alice Rivaz, pêcheuse et bergère de mots (Zoé, 1998).
The novelist now rests in the Cimetière des Rois in Plainpalais, reserved for Geneva's notable figures. Nevertheless, the ties that Alice Rivaz maintained during her lifetime with the Republic of Geneva and international Geneva deserve to be better known, as does the broader way in which her work embraces the modern world. In the novelist's view, its crises and wars, its hopes and sufferings affect characters down to their deepest intimacy—just as they affected her personally. The book sheds light on the singularity of Alice Rivaz's journey as a woman, an ILO employee, and a writer, while occasionally pausing to examine specific works that ultimately shaped her identity as an author and defined her engagement with women's history and modernity.

Educated at the universities of Lausanne (Licence) and Oxford (D.Phil.), Valérie Cossy is currently Associate Professor of Gender Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lausanne. Between 2002 and 2008, she also taught the works of Alice Rivaz and Simone de Beauvoir at the Gender Studies Center of the University of Geneva (Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences). Drawing on her courses in English, French-Swiss, and French literature, her research focuses on women writers in literary history as well as the literary representation of women and men. Her scholarship centers primarily on two periods: the late Enlightenment and the 20th century. She is the author of a book on the first French translations of Jane Austen's novels, Jane Austen in Switzerland (Geneva: Slatkine, 2006), and another on Isabelle de Charrière, Isabelle de Charrière, écrire pour vivre autrement (Lausanne: PPUR, "Savoir suisse" series, 2012).

The study of mid-twentieth-century French-Swiss literature often involves tracing the complex relationships between regional cultural identity and broader European intellectual currents. Authors of this period frequently engaged with the shifting social landscapes, political crises, and institutional transformations that characterized the era. Within French-Swiss studies, scholarly attention is frequently directed toward how writers navigated the intersections of gender, public life, and professional identity. Valérie Cossy examines the journey of Alice Rivaz, highlighting her work as a novelist and an employee of the International Labour Organization, while anchoring her writing in its historical context.

Readers interested in French-Swiss literature or gender studies may find this introduction relevant to their explorations of women authors. The volume was created in collaboration with the Association Mémoire de femmes and Editions Suzanne Hurter to offer a fresh reading of the work of Alice Rivaz. Valérie Cossy is Associate Professor of Gender Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lausanne, and her research focuses on women writers in literary history and the literary representation of women and men.