The Edge of Earth is too Near, Violette Leduc [1985]
in Louise Forsyth (Anthology Québec Women's Plays in English Translation) Volume I( 1966-1986) (Playwrights Canada Press, 2006)
Original
Résumé Up until her untimely death in 1972, Violette Leduc was a protégée of Simone de Beauvoir and one of France's most controversial women writers. In this play, Leduc is surrounded by her ex-husband, her woman lover, her mother and several luminaries of French literary circles, including Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Genet. Another, albeit invisible, presence in Leduc's life is the "vampire" who prevents her from writing, and who refuses and censors her manuscripts. But ultimately, neither persecution, humiliation, nor paranoia prevent her from writing, for, in Marchessault's words, "Violette Leduc pledged her life to her passion for the impossible." Extrait « VIOLETTE : I'll write to you every day. / SACHS : You're sinking fast, my dear. I beg of you, drop this haunted mask of yours immediately. I'm not a ghost. I'd much rather you sent me pages from your manuscript instead. / VIOLETTE : I don't want to write anymore, Sachs. I'll never be a writer. / SACHS : You're disappointing me, child. » |