Nathalie Sarraute and the Thought from the Outside

Abstract

Nathalie Sarraute and the Thought from the Outside Veronique Flambard-Weisbart The modern ting its text leaves is particular: the subject no room for the singular, the personal, the absent from the text. Because the text is put- own is discourse (metalinguistic discourse) into question, the subject sonal, systematically projected towards the outside, the imper- its and the status of singularity Metalinguistic discourse involves a duality between of signification: a linguistic Sarraute's texts, the duality become problematic. two systems system and a philosophical system. In is formulated by a double regard as demonstrated in the following passage: .son regard attendri caresse ces parcelles intimes de lui-meme, ces paillettes qui scintillent dans la la terre grise, faisant pressentir I'enorme gisemcnt tandis que moitie qu'il a deleguee parmi nous, sem- blable a nous, avec nous dans un silence perplexe medite.' Each system puts the other into question in a back and forth move- ment: a movement of which the possibility depends on a gap, on an abyss left between the two systems of signification. The gap, other- wise called the hors-texte, represents the threshold, the space where two systems communicate, but not the systems themselves. It is a no man's land and in that respect, it is quite impersonal. But it is in this no man's land where everyone communicates in a neutral the common place through commonplaces / cliches. In that area of contact between two systems the subject can be apprehended. In other words, the hors-texte doxically to singularity. where people communicate leads para-