Marie NDiaye : blankness and recognition / Andrew Asibong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Asibong, Andrew, author.

Series:

Contemporary French and francophone cultures ; 30.

Contemporary French and francophone cultures ; 30

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

NDiaye, Marie--Criticism and interpretation.

NDiaye, Marie.

Ndiaye, Marie, 1967-.

Criticism and interpretation.

Local Subjects:

Ndiaye, Marie, 1967-.

Physical Description:

245 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2013.

Summary:

This is the first critical study in English to focus exclusively on the work of Marie NDiaye, born in central France in 1967, winner of the Prix Femina (2001), the Prix Goncourt (2009), shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize (2013), and widely considered to be one of the most important French authors of her generation. Andrew Asibong argues that at the heart of NDiaye's world lurks an indefinable 'blankness' which makes it impossible for the reader to decode narrative at the level of psychology or event. NDiaye's texts explore social stigmata and familial disintegration with a violence unmatched by any of her contemporaries, but in doing so they remain as strangely affectless and 'unrecognizable' as their dissociated protagonists. Considering each of NDiaye's works in chronological order (including her novels, theatre, short fiction and writing for children), Asibong assesses the aesthetic, emotional and political stakes of NDiaye's portraits of impenetrable selfhood. His book provides an original and provocative framework within which to read NDiaye as a simultaneously hybrid and hyper-French cultural figure, fascinating and fantastical practitioner of the postmodern - and reluctantly postcolonial - 'blank arts'. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Blankness/(Dis)integration: The First Novel Cycle 32

2 Blankness/(Re)generation: The Second Novel Cycle 69

3 Ghouls, Ghosts and Bloodless Abuse: NDiaye's Undead Theatre 109

4 Little Baby Nothing: Framing the Invisible Child 142.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781846319464

1846319463

OCLC:

857110254