Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Delineating the modern woman

UNUSUAL NOVELIST: French writer Marie Darrieussecq at the Institute of English, University of Kerala, on Monday. Photo: S. Gopakumar

The Basque French writer Marie Darrieussecq's `Pig Tales,' is a droll novel about metamorphosis. It tells the story of a woman who discovers her animal instincts and transforms into a pig. The `pig woman' eventually falls in love with a wolf. However, she is not completely a pig or woman. Her identity keeps oscillating, leading to a series of bizarre, grotesque, tragic and comic experiences.

Reading excerpts from her work to the students and faculty members of the Institute of English, University of Kerala, here at a `Meet the Writer' programme organised by Alliance Francaise and the Embassy of France on Monday, the prolific and experimental writer said she does not have a message to deliver through her writings. "I do not have a message to deliver but a story to tell. The idea of a woman turning into a pig can be told in many ways. I have told it in my voice. It will be understood by the readers in many ways," said Ms. Darrieussecq, who is currently on a visit to the State as part of her maiden tour to the country.

Hailing from Bayonne, a small village in the French Basque region, a country situated on the border of France and Spain, Ms. Darrieussecq was raised in a country replete with legends. "There were plenty of legends about ladies transforming into various creatures in our country. I knew all these stories as a kid and it has influenced my writing," she said.

According to her, there is a revival of mythology in contemporary French literature. "There are a lot of people who write ghost stories in France today," said Ms. Darrieussecq, who writes every day "except when I am travelling."

"I write guided by my instinct and without thinking too much," she said.

Though `Pig Tales' was her first novel to be published in 1996 at the age of 26, it was actually her sixth. The first five novels in her words "were not mature enough to be published. I was only learning the art of writing then."

`Pig Tales' made a sensational debut with the novel stirring up both love and anger from the readers. This was followed by `My Phantom Husband' in 1998. The novel tells the story of a man who goes out to buy a loaf of bread and disappears, even as his wife struggles to come to terms with the fact, and with the shifting reality of her life. .

An avid reader as a child, Ms. Darrieussecq took full advantage of the giant family library, which, she claims, included texts as diverse as the works of Tolstoy and the latest bestseller. Her mother taught French literature at junior level and her father was a technician. After graduating from high school, she set herself on the path of a literary scholar, succeeding in achieving all academic distinctions from the University of Paris and from the Ecole Normale Superieure.

Some of her other popular works include Breathing Underwater (1999), Brief Stay with the Living (2001), The Baby (2002), White (2003), The Country (2005) and Zoo (2006). Six of her novels have been translated into English.

Introducing the writer, noted literary critic V. Rajakrishnan said: "Ms. Darrieussecq is an unusual novelist with unusual novels," he said. "Her narrative method is lucid. Her `Pig Tales' and `My Phantom Husband' are an exploration of the psyche of a modern woman," added Mr. Rajakrishnan.

Sangeeth Kurian

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