Un sang d’encre: du corps en littérature contemporaine by Nora Cottille-Foley (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Un sang d’encre: du corps en littérature contemporaine by Nora Cottille-Foley Adrienne Angelo Cottille-Foley, Nora. Un sang d’encre: du corps en littérature contemporaine. L’Harmattan, 2022. ISBN 978-2-14-025338-6. Pp. 224. Taking as its premise that a shared “sentiment d’angoisse existentielle” (7) circulates in the writings of the contemporary women writers included in this study, this work examines textual manifestations of unease which surface in response to differing degrees of social inequality and hostility in their characters’ respective environments. To this end, Cottille-Foley reads representations of corporeality in these authors’ works via metamorphosis, the monstrous, the mythical, and the uncanny. The first chapter considers different forms of monstrosity throughout Marie NDiaye’s novels (from En famille to La vengeance m’appartient) as metaphors for power dynamics which shape identity and interpersonal relationships. Turning to Maryse Condé’s novel Célanire cou-coupé, the author traces the autobiographical elements and polyphonic complexities of this text and evokes Glissant’s concept of opacity-as-resistance to buttress her reading of Condé’s work. Cottille-Foley explains how Maylis de Kerangal’s Réparer les vivants offers a “redéfinition en spirale” (92) of women’s agency by evoking and seemingly restaging ancient myths and paternalistic medical practices (especially Charcot’s treatment of “hysteric” patients in nineteenth-century France). In the chapter dedicated to Linda Lê’s Trois parques, the author presents the ways in which the polyvalent aspects of food, exile, and familial estrangement are inscribed on the characters’ bodies and are tied to the body of writing (96). The image of the disarticulated body carries over to the next chapter on Marie Nimier in which the author touches upon images of fragmented bodies in Sirène, La caresse, and La reine du silence. Cotille-Foley posits that Nimier projects herself into the space of the text which affords her a safe and distanced space from where she attempts to reassemble “les fragments de l’image du père” (114). The author contends that Marie Darrieussecq’s first novel Truismes, wherein subversion is inscribed on the woman’s body which slowly morphs into that of a pig’s, denounces gender-based violence, and grants autonomous insight through the changing body. The last chapter analyzes images of the narrator’s pregnant and post-abortion body and metaphors of contamination in Annie Ernaux’s first work, Les armoires vides, to explain the ultimate upending of social class dichotomies. Finally, Cottille-Foley includes her 1996 interview with Ernaux which complements her reading of this novel. The author acknowledges that this study presents “d’étranges correspondances” (207) between these established women writers, each of whom is known for her respective thematic concerns, narrative perspective(s), and writing style. By locating the body as a site of alterity and subversion, the author successfully demonstrates how each writer articulates discontent through bodily expressions in texts which allow for self-assertions and autonomous gains. Although some of the issues raised in this volume have been addressed elsewhere, especially during [End Page 201] the zeitgeist of women’s writing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this work nonetheless offers new perspectives with skillful close readings and attention paid to stylistic and literary devices. In sum, this work offers insight into the corporeal underpinnings in the works of diverse writers and engages with issues pertinent to women’s and gender studies in a contemporary context. [End Page 202] Adrienne Angelo Auburn University (AL) Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French