Nathalie Sarraute Summary

Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999) was one of the seminal figures in the emergence of France's "Nouveau Roman" ("New Novel") in the 1950s. Her work included not only novels but also plays and influential e... Read more

In the following essay, Watson-Williams provides a brief summary of Sarraute's L'Usage de la parole, commenting on the consistency of her thought, especially Sarraute's emphasis o... Read more

In the following essay, Barbour acknowledges that although many critics have attempted to read Sarraute's Tropismes as a feminist text, the work is ultimately a non-gender-specific text that is... Read more

In the following essay, Orr uses Sarraute's Le Planétarium to examine the role of satire and its interrogative role in literature. French literature abounds with examples of satire as a ... Read more

In the following essay, Gratton writes that although Sarraute's Enfance has most often been cited as an example of a text that implements the poetics of fragmentation, this reading limits the p... Read more

In the following essay, Rothenberg concentrates on the similarities between Sarraute's prose and theatrical works, first outlining the differences between the two genres and then comparing two ... Read more

In the following essay, Rothenberg reviews varying critical opinions regarding Sarraute's stance about the non-importance gender has in her writing, theorizing that despite the author's ... Read more

In the following essay, David analyses two of Sarraute's texts using Melanie Klein's psychoanalytical theories regarding the role of aggression and envy in the behavior of children to de... Read more

In the following essay, Jefferson notes that despite the critical commentary Sarraute has provided on her own work, interpretations of her text vary widely, and are deeply influenced by the reader him... Read more

Critical Essay by Denise Goitein Clearly, the two paramount problems recurring throughout Nathalie Sarraute's writings are those of communication and of truth. And it is no accident and no surp... Read more

Critical Essay by John Mellors For over forty years Nathalie Sarraute has been writing about 'tropisms', the name she has given to what lies underneath the words, gestures and facial exp... Read more

Critical Essay by A. Otten Like Tropisms, [L'usage de la parole] is a collection of prose pieces and reconfirms that the "primary subject of writing" has been the object of [Natha... Read more

Critical Essay by Roger Shattuck Essentially Mme. Sarraute seeks out the first tender shoots of our mental life—more evolved than the undifferentiated static that fluctuates during every living... Read more

Critical Essay by Erika Munk The astonishing thing about Nathalie Sarraute's Childhood is that it takes a style which for 30 years has been associated with the dissolution of character and narr... Read more

Critical Essay by David J. Dwyer [The central character of Nathalie Sarraute's Between Life and Death] is a writer and her central concern is the "mere complexities, the fury and the mir... Read more

Critical Essay by A. Otten Finally [in Théâtre] all of Nathalie Sarraute's plays—even the most recent—are available in one volume…. Together they form a drama... Read more

Critical Essay by Gretchen Rous Besser The gathering of Nathalie Sarraute's plays into a single volume [Théâtre] allows the reader to note the emergence of certain patterns and th... Read more

Critical Essay by Gretchen Rous Besser Almost reminiscent of the format of Tropismes, the individual pieces composing L'Usage de la parole are more abstract and more profound, less anchored to ... Read more