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ABSTRACTS Michèle Chossat (Seton Hill University) De l’obsession chez Redonnet et Nothomb Ces femmes qui travaillent... In Redonnet’s Splendid Hôtel (1986) as well as in Amelie Nothomb’s Stupeur et tremblements (1999), work is depicted as the main focus, a true obsession. In Splendid Hôtel, a middle-aged woman runs a hotel in the middle of a swamp. She works all by herself despite all the challenges: toilets not working, permanent water and humidity problems, structural troubles. Additionally she must do everything else by herself: she keeps the books, cleans the rooms, takes care of the sick customers. She must also care for her two sisters who totally depend on her affectively and physically. In Stupeur et tremblements, Nothomb describes her personal experience as an employee in a large Japanese firm in the early 1990s. Written entirely in the first person, the author is able to share her darkest moments in a sensitive and humorous tone. Also obsessed by her work, she must adapt and understand Japanese work ethics. The narrator seems also very much alone although among many colleagues. The lack of guidance and compassion from her workmates eventually lead her to escape in an imaginary world which allow her to survive. Both texts have many features in common. Although fiction and autobiography, two different genres, they offer an interesting view on women and work. Family in the traditional sense of the term is not mentioned. Both women do not have a husband or children. Both are obsessed with work. Both work under desperate conditions. Both end up spending most of their working time in the bathroom: either fixing or cleaning the toilets. An issue a survival, they must find within themselves the qualities that will allow them to resurface. Self-made women, they identify with their work. Their identities are completely defined by their commitment to the public sphere, a place traditionally reserved to men. Finally both teach us about character, strength, courage, and tenacity, a different image of woman in literature.

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