Self-irony and female voice in French and English chick lit

This paper analyses self-irony as a communicative and narrative strategy in French and English chick-lit, focusing on how a self-ironic female voice contributes to the construction of contemporary models of femininity. Drawing on a comparative close reading of selected novels, the study examines how humour, self-deprecation, and first-person narration allow heroines to negotiate vulnerability, social expectations, and reader evaluation. The findings show that, despite stylistic differences between English and French traditions, self-irony functions in both contexts as a culturally meaningful resource for managing self-presentation, fostering reader solidarity, and articulating emotionally credible female identities.