SOURCE: Marrone, Claire. “Pretense and Possibility: The Tomorrows of Charles, Lula, and Marie Cardinal.” Sites 1, no. 2 (fall 1997): 527-40.

In the following essay, Marrone discusses the relationship between the dual protagonists in Les Jeudis de Charles et de Lula and notes their gender-based differences in thought, language, and desires.

Marie Cardinal has enjoyed international notoriety for over two decades, particularly since the publication of her most celebrated text, Les Mots pour le dire (1975). Autobiography has always been at the center of Cardinal's production, and her search for self-knowledge has taken various forms. Her corpus, which includes over fifteen works of fiction, autobiography, and criticism, has been especially relevant for contemporary feminist critics, for her writing highlights such issues as: the fusion and non-fictional elements; historical, mythical and political constructions of female identity; the mother-daughter relationship; and exilic writing.

Many of Cardinal's text trace her nomadic existence. Born in Algeria...