SOURCE: Rothenberg, John. “Gender in Question in the Theatre of Nathalie Sarraute.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 35, no. 3 (July 1999): 311-20.

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 denials, the intended gender exclusions from her work make the issue even more central to her writing.

Nathalie Sarraute's own position on the question of women writers suggests that she might object to being studied in the context of a special issue devoted to women. She also strongly denies that gender has any importance in the area of human experience which she is exploring. Admirers of her work cannot always follow her on this however, and there have been a number of feminist studies of the novels which argue that she has not in fact been able to exclude the issue of gender...