Rougeâtre

by Chantal Chawaf

Aux lueurs rougeâtres de l'intérieur du corps humain exprimé, éclairé par des tempêtes anxiogènes et créatrices, nous descendons au fond, au tréfonds des phrases, aux racines affectives de la parole, là où le langage circule, libre, veineux, sauvage, rauque, dans le sang de l'angoisse et de la vie. Mais le texte, ses ouragans et ses débris de personnages dépassent la souffrance et voici la vérité, voici ces traces d'une langue de coeur et de lait que l'écriture ne peut pas éviter de déformer, voici que le son de la voix compte plus que les mots, voici ce patois muqueux et sensible, voici ce parler d'une région de tendresse, de liquides et de douceur d'où le désir est toujours originaire...
C.C.

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 2, 1978

About the author

Chantal Chawaf (born 1943) is a French writer.

She was born in Paris, during the World War II. During her childhood, she studied art at l'École du Louvre and literature. She travelled and lived for some years in Europe, in the Middle East and North America. In 1974, she started publishing at the Editions des Femmes, created in relation to the MLF (Mouvement de Liberation des Femmes) by the leading French feminist Antoinette Fouque. Chawaf’s first text, Retable. la rêverie, started what critics called "Écriture féminine". Books which also belong to this movement are; Cercoeur (1975) and Maternité (1979).

In her books, Chawaf explores the theme of a mother-daughter relationship and attempts to realize the potential of words to free the female unconscious, to de-intellectualize her body and give voice to an inner experience.

Chantal Chawaf work on birth and life giving leads in her last books to an ecocriticism of the contemporary society.

She has travelled frequently in the United States where her work is translated and studied in universities.

She is the author of many novels, one play and two essays, and is editor at a French publisher.

(from Wikipedia)