SOURCE: Jefferson, Ann. “Difference and Dissension.” In Nathalie Sarraute, Fiction and Theory: Questions of Difference, pp. 17-38. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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 himself.

Il n'y pas de moyen terme entre l'admission et l'exclusion. [There is no middle way between admittance and exclusion.]

(Entre la vie et la mort, p. 149 [156])

‘différences’ and ‘différends’

Reading Sarraute is often a deeply disorientating experience. Characteristically, the opening page of a Sarraute novel pitches one into a situation in which nothing is immediately explained, and where the unnamed and unidentified participants exacerbate the reader's sense of disorientation by expressing themselves in the form of questions:

Soudain il s'interrompt, il lève la main, l'index dressé, il tend l'oreille … Vous...