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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMl directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMl* TRACER L'ENFANCE : POÉTIQUES AUTOBIOGRAPHIQUES CHEZ MARIA WINE. PATRICK CHAMOISEAU ET NATHALIE SARRAUTE DISSERT.-\TION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Ann-Sofie B. Persson. .VI..A. The Ohio State University 1001 Dissertation Committee: .Approved by Professor John Conteh-Morsan. Adviser Professor Judith .Vlavne .Adviser Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras Deparfment of French and iWian UMl Number: 3011128 UMl UMl Microform 3011128 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Com pany 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Ann-Sofie B. Persson 2001 ABSTRACT The present studyexplores how three authors of different geographical and social origin, race, sex and culture, approach the problem of narrating autobiographically the elusive part of their pasts which is childhood. It focuses on the stylistic and narrative Strategies used by Maria Wine in Man bar skiutit ett leion fOn a tiré sur un lion, my translation]. Patrick Chamoiseau in An tan d’enfance and Chemin d'école, and Nathalie Sarraute in Enfance. In Chapter 1. the metaphorical image of the author as a caged lion informs the reading of Wine's autobiography. Through different images of prison - the orphanage, the family, the name, the body - this global metaphor expresses her problematic relation to the world, the others and the self. The stylistic features used to describe the child's universe from her perspective, convey her entrapment and liberation through metaphor and metamorphosis. Finally. I argue that Wine inscribes, metaphorically, a certain poetics within the narrative, which allows to grasp a poetic vision of existence. Chapter 2 studies Chamoiseau's use of partly ethnographical methods to depict and preserve the creole world of his childhood. The oral dimension introduced in the writing, and the myth of paradise and hell which serves to establish a contrast between home and colonial school, dominate the investigation. The child's play with words and lies reveals a conception of the autobiographical project. Chapter 3 discusses how Sarraute conveys her childhood experience through the use of the meta-narrative device of a double narrative voice, as well as the role of images and space in the process of remembering. I suggest different ways of reading the work as an anti-literary vocation narrative, as well as a manifesto for a poetics of autobiography through the use of tropisms. In the concluding remarks, the comparative discussion of the three writers brings out common traits in their responses to the problematic of writing childhood, while underlining that the formulation of a poetics within the autobiography, a shared feature of all three texts, allows the authors to create a meta-commentary on what writing is or can be. inside or outside the autobiographical realm. Ill Aux entants que nous fûmes, et à l'enfant dans ma vie, ma tliie Louise. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks go to my adviser. John Conteh-Morgan. for intellectual stimulation and constant support, for opening the doors of unknown worlds in literature to me. for endless inspiration and invaluable discussions on life and literature. I wish to thank Judith Mayne for encouragement and enthusiasm, for always pointing out alternative routes of thinking about identity through feminist readings. 1 am grateful to Danielle Marx-Scouras for her flexibility and for sharing her sharp vision of poetics and politics in francophone literature. 1 also wish to thank Linda Haverty Rugg for passing on some of her insights in the jungle of autobiographical criticism, and for all her help in the earlier stages of my work, especially her comments on my analyses and translations of Maria Wine. Without the financial help and general support of the Department of French and Italian and the Department o f Germanic Languages and Literatures, this dissertation would never have been written, and I am thankful for their investment. I would also like to thank my panner. Christophe Mattei. for making the computer and me do what we were supposed to. and my family for being there. V IT A April 21. 1969 .................................Bom - Finspang. Sweden 1995 ..................................................M.A. Comparative Literature. University of Paris III. 1995-2000 ....................................... Graduate Teaching Associate. The Ohio State Universitv FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian VI TABLE DES MATIERES Page Abstract .........................................................................................................................................i' Dedication.....................................................................................................................................'v Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ v V ita ................................................................................................................................................ vi Chapters: Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 1 Points de départ : choix et justifications............................................................................2 Le sujet.................................................................................................................................. 5 La présentation des auteurs.................................................................................................. 9 La comparaison ....................................................................................................................16 État de la question etméthodologie .................................................................................... 19 1. De l'enfance-prison à la poétique de la métamorphose dans On a tiré sur un lion de Maria W ine ...................................................................................................................................33 1.1 La cage du lio n ..............................................................................................................38 1.1.1 D'une prison à l’autre...................................................................................... 42 L'orphelinat .............................................................................................................. 42 Le rire et la solitude dans la prison du corps........................................................47 Le zoom ..................................................................................................................... 56 Les contrastes ........................................................................................................... 61 La famille et les paroles...........................................................................................63 1.1.2 A travers les barreaux : point de vue de la prisonnière ................................. 69 La découverte du corps............................................................................................70 La recherche des origines........................................................................................ 81 Les relations avec les hommes ................................................................................85 1.2 Vers une poétique de la métamorphose : l'enfance au figuré................................... 92 vii 1.2.1 Les objets.......................................................................................................... 98 1.2.2 Les végétaux......................................................................................................109 1.2.3 Les éléments..................................................................................................... 112 1.2.4 Les animaux ....................................................................................................