SOURCE: Bond, David J. “Marie Cardinal's Comme si de rien n'était: Language and Violence.” International Fiction Review 21, nos. 1-2 (1994): 68-75.

In the following essay, Bond addresses Cardinal's emphasis on the power of words and language in Comme si de rien n'était and throughout her career, purporting that Cardinal links women's cultural and social liberation with their gender's need to claim their own language and history.

Marie Cardinal's most recent novel, Comme si de rien n'était (“As if nothing had happened”; 1990) continues the exploration of violence that she began in earlier works.¹ Once again, she shows particular interest in language as a vehicle of violence. This time, however, she departs from the relatively straightforward narration of her previous works, and tries to create a form that itself conveys how language may be used in a violent manner, and that also suggests how it may be used...