Sarah Dunant (writing for the Observer) summarised one aspect of the choice of a pig to metamorphosize into: ‘If all men are pigs, then what can a woman do but turn into a sow?’ Marie Darrieussecq was writing in a time in which feminism was entering what is commonly described as its third wave. The feminism of the 1990s was much more bodily-representational than previous incarnations, focusing on the reproductive rights of women and to a certain extent the aestheticism of the female body among other issues. At first the boar doesn��t understand a thing, he remains stretched out for a few seconds, thinking about it. Aha! Then he realizes he is being killed and utters strangles cries until he can scream no more. I leave open the question of feminine writing, which is also the question of my life." [31] Polemics and critical acclaim [ edit ] Polemics [ edit ] The main protagonist of Marie Darrieussecq’s novel finds herself inexplicably slowly transforming into a porcine animal. When reading novel an immediate question is raised to us as readers: Why a pig in particular? The pig is not a diametrically opposed to us like an invertebrate or a cold blooded reptile or amphibian. But then a pig is equally not as easy for us to relate to as a more humanoid animal (such as an ape) or a more essential domestic animal (such as a horse or a dog).

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Lo más notable de este texto es que ondea. Cuando una la está leyendo, no se sabe si sentir lástima, risa, miedo, asco o excitación sexual. La personaje, de entrada, no fue provista de voluntad y, cuando experimenta algún impulso que la lleva a "moverse", este es equiparable al celo de los animales. No se puede establecer una identificación con ella, por lo tanto. Una se limita a hacer gestos conforme pasan las páginas, porque la protagonista ni siquiera es capaz de despertar compasión. Un acierto, me parece. First edition cover of Marie Darrieussecq’s Pig Tales. Originally published as Truismes (Paris, 1996) Marie Darrieussecq’s work reminds one of Lautréamont: the dream of the swine, in Canto IV, begins as follows: "I dreamed that I had entered the body of a swine… when I wanted to kill, I killed." Pig Tales was born. The passage when Falmer, or the ghost of Maldoror, flies over the Panthéon is My Phantom Husband. White is a hymn to the ocean, to amphibious man, or even the "girl of snow" who appears in Canto VI." [37] My favourite reads are often ones able to converse with thoughts, memories, experiences, feelings found inside my mind, which remained remarkable enough to be granted immortality, never fade. Truismes is a sardonic, tragicomic coming-of-age tale that reeks of fresh authenticity. That said, Darrieussecq’s debut novel had me thinking of two masterpieces - Dogville (Lars von Trier) and Raw (Julia Ducournau). Our unnamed narrator, as Grace in Dogville is not only innocent and naïve, but rather extremely conformist, willing to surrender to all of society’s perversity for as long as it is “humanly” possible. Even so, the novel never falls prey of excessive victimisation or sentimentality, delivering a thorough contemplation of the complexity of female agency in face of a dehumanizing oppression. Julia Ducournau’s films deal with the female body as a reflection of her character’s inner moods, unspeakable truths, unbearable struggles, which transcend the limits of language and, in turn, manifest as body reactions or transformations. Truismes competently follows a similar approach with the fluid transition of our protagonist into a sow (truie in French). This serves to mirror the bestiality with which women are handled in this (sadly realistic) dystopian Paris, while also questioning the human value in face of our ingrained speciesism. The concept of a masseur turning into a pig is irresistable to me. The humour of it all is up there with Hairspray. I love it so much. I was laughing and smiling so much.Scientific discovery under Nazi Rule – The curious case of Walther Kossel and Gottfried Möllenstedt Es inevitable comparar el paralelismo entre esta novela y «La metamorfosis» de Kafka en la que el protagonista, una mañana se despierta convertido en una enorme cucaracha. Siendo este último una obra maestra de la literatura y sin querer quitarle mérito, pienso que Marie ha hecho un gran trabajo. A dark feminist fable of political and sexual corruption, and a grim warning of what can happen in a society without a soul, Pig Tales scandalised its readers when it first came out and became the most popular first novel published in decades. Pig Tales is the story of a young woman who works at a shady Parisian massage parlour, becoming a favourite with her lustful clients until, that is, she slowly and alarmingly metamorphoses into a pig. Dominique Carlini Versini, Figures de l'excès chez Marie Darrieusssecq, Virginie Despentes et Marina de Van: Ecrire et filmer le corps-frontière, Brill, 2023.

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While finishing her PhD in French Literature, she wrote her first novel, Truismes (Pig Tales) which was published in September 1996 by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (POL), who have published all her subsequent novels as well. After the success of Truismes, Darrieussecq decided to quit her teaching position at the University of Lille to concentrate on writing her novels. Her first husband was a mathematician, her second is an astrophysicist. She gave birth to a son in 2001 and to a daughter in 2004. In fact the author is not too fond of subtlety, since the protagonist of her 1996 novel is a not-so-brilliant Parisian girl working in a perfumery/massage parlour/brothel as a shop assistant (whose functions range from selling cosmetics to prostitution, mostly at the same time) who ends up turning into a sow. That’s why I write: it is because I remain myself through my sorrow over Yvan. Even when I’m in the forest with the other pigs, they often sniff me suspiciously, sensing that human thoughts are still going on in there. I’m unable to rise to their expectations. Her doctoral thesis under the direction of Francis Marmande, defended in 1997 at the Université Paris VII, was entitled: "Critical Moments in Contemporary Literature. Tragic Irony and Autofiction in the Works of Georges Perec, Michel Leiris, Serge Doubrovsky and Hervé Guibert."

The transformation of the protagonist into a pig is in hindsight the natural choice for the novel. We find that political implications as well as the social and physical implications provide a basis to inform us readers of a harsh reality that could so easily occur. Her first book, Truismes ( Pig Tales), published at the age of 27, the metamorphosis of a woman into a sow, was a worldwide success, with a circulation of more than one million copies in France and abroad, translated into forty languages. Darrieussecq, whose mother and two grandmothers spoke Basque, [25] regularly claims in interviews [26] that she doesn't sacralise French, and considers it as a language among others: "I believe writers have a special relationship with their mother tongue. They dare to touch it, consider it as something outside of themselves, and they can either break or play with this body of language." [27] Her characters often move from one continent to another and are almost all confronted with foreign languages. In Tom Is Dead, the child's death was announced in English, since the French narrator was living in Australia: Unfortunately, the genius word play is lost in translation, as is the title’s double meaning. Truisms seem to dictate our protagonist’s human trajectory, preventing her from using her intellect and self-will until she turns into a „truie“, which ironically renders her freer from enslaving norms leading, however, to ineludible marginalisation.