When Sarraute undertook to compose dramatic form for the expression of unspoken tropisms, she became her own adapter. Writing for the radio, where the visual cannot be used to convey interior action, meant that dialogue alone had to support the drama.

Structured dialogue that does not reveal the prior, barely expressible groping that occurs in the subconscious was inconceivable to the author. She had to find a way to reveal internal action externally, and the means she came upon was to have her characters speak aloud in seemingly natural language, yet say quite extraordinary things that are really inner commentary. The listener, then, must distinguish between what a character is likely to say to others and what is still in the realm of the unspoken. However extraordinary its content, Sarraute's language is deliberately commonplace. The contrast between the two is thus most dramatic.

Unable to provide any physical...