Analysis Of Pour Un Oui Ou Pour Un Non Sarraute

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In a similar vein to Duras, in Pour un oui ou pour un non Sarraute employs a cyclical narrative to replace the linear style traditionally adopted. However, Sarraute pushes the divergence further and creates a “play within a play,” comparable to Savannah Bay, but with less fragmentation of the narrative. Sarraute introduces her play in the middle of a conversation between two almost nameless characters, H1 and H2. An argument ensues forcing H2 to consult a jury consisting of the closest people nearby, in this case his next door neighbours. H2 had already expressed his upset to H1 from a previous encounter when, upon asserting “j’ai été… me targuer de je ne sais quel petit succès,” he was met with the condescendingly toned “C’est biiien… ça…”, resulting in H1 belittling H2’s feeling through the tone and rhythm of his words, “Ce que tu as senti dans cet accent mis sur bien… dans ce suspens, c’est qu’ils étaient ce qui se nomme condescendants.” With the jury in place, H2 re-presents his grievances with an audience of his peers present. …show more content…

Consequently, through her style of attempting to bring what’s underneath to the surface, Sarraute disregards any conventional narrative and reverses the roles played by H1 and H2, in what Valerie Minogue has referred to as a “rewrite”. From around the halfway point of the play, H1 mimics the language of H2, taking on the the role of ‘fol’ as he begins to talk about “le petit bout de lard” that H2 has set for him, just like the “souricière” H2 had accused H1 of

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