SOURCE: Rothenberg, John. “Imagery in the Theatre of Nathalie Sarraute.” Neophilologus 82, no. 3 (July 1998): 385-92.

In the following essay, Rothenberg details the use of surface action in Sarraute's plays as a means through which she conveys theatrical depth, using these devices as metaphors that convey several layers of meaning.

Nathalie Sarraute is best known as a novelist, and for her essays defining the position of the novelist in the second half of the twentieth century. Both the essays collected in L'Ere du soupçon (1956), and the novels have been generally recognised as major contributions to the radical rethinking of novel theory and practise by the “nouveaux romanciers”. Her work for the theatre, which is quite as original, and breaks quite as decisively with traditional forms, came later in her career, and has received much less critical attention, although it has attracted fine directors such as Jean-Louis Barrault and Claude...