George Sand Superstar : conférence de Claire Le Guillou

Claire Le Guillou examines George Sand not only as a celebrated novelist but as one of the nineteenth century’s first true popular icons. The talk follows the extraordinary circulation of her name and image, from novels and public controversy to an omelette, a balloon, perfume and chromolithographs. These unexpected objects reveal how admiration, commerce, caricature and rumor all helped construct the figure known as George Sand. Alongside that fame, Le Guillou considers the hostility directed at a prominent woman writer and the ways contemporary critics tried to control her reputation. The conference offers a lively history of celebrity before modern mass media, while keeping Sand’s literary success and carefully fashioned public identity at its center. It is a portrait of cultural fame as both achievement and contested terrain.