The Last Word: Deathbed Scenes in the Works of Nathalie Sarraute

The Last Word: Deathbed Scenes in the Works of Nathalie Sarraute Mark D. Lee Je comprends parfaitement que l'on conserve au fond de son portefeuille le récit d'une heure d'agonie, tant d'années durant. Il ne serait même pas nécessaire qu'elle fût particulièrement choisie. Elles ont toutes quelque chose de presque rare. —R. M. Rilke, Les Cahiers de Malte Laurids Brigge1 WITH THE DEATH OF NATHALIE SARRAUTE, it is time to examine a scene whose recurrence and consistency across her literary career demands critical attention. Novels, short texts, even anecdotes recounted in interviews and essays by Sarraute are punctuated by what may best be described as a deathbed scene. A well-visited topos of literature in general and of biography in particular, la scène d'agonie has long attracted authors, undoubtedly because it has the potential to draw together into one focussed moment all the dramatic tensions of a narration. As readers familiar with Sarraute's writing will appreciate, it is unlikely such a scene should play a primarily narrative role in her works. Yet, by repeatedly bringing the reader to the brink of the unknowable and the indicible, the deathbed scene certainly offers fertile ground for tropismic exploration. An ending and a beginning: Ich sterbe. My approach to reading these scenes extends from the ending of "Ich sterbe," the first of nine short texts that make up the collection L'Usage de la parole. Published in 1980, "Ich sterbe" presents the most recent and perhaps most developed example of a deathbed scene in Sarraute's works. Here, the last words Chekhov is reported to have uttered before expiring on his deathbed are Sarraute's starting point. Providing but the barest details of plot and character, she writes that Chekhov pronounced these words from his bed in a German town where he had gone knowing he would soon die. We are reminded that he was not only a writer, but also a doctor. A simple yet dramatic sentence sums up all the conventional narrative action. On one side, his Russian wife, on the other, his German doctor: ayant auprès de son lit sa femme d'un côté et de l'autre un médecin allemand, il s'est dressé, il s'est assis, et il a dit, pas en russe, pas dans sa propre langue, mais dans la langue de l'autre, la langue allemande, il a dit à voix haute et en articulant bien "Ich sterbe", et il est retombé mort.2 In her introduction to a voice-recording of L'Usage de la parole, Sarraute Vol. XL, No. 1 47 L'Esprit Créateur states that "sans le vouloir, et tout à fait spontanément, dans ces textes je m'adresse au lecteur."3 As Sheila Bell demonstrates in her insightful study,4 this new form of address sets the ground rules for a collaborative game between narrator and narratee that, although initially "involuntary," continues and develops throughout L'Usage de la parole. Sanda Golopentia, meanwhile, analyses "Ich sterbe" from a speech-act perspective, focussing on Sarraute's "écriture centrée sur le dire."5 Both show the text to be fundamentally about the act of reading and the performance of the spoken word. Their different critical perspectives allow us to appreciate how every text in the collection calls on readers to prolong tropismic possibilities for themselves. Nowhere is this spirit of collaborative play more evident than at the end of "Ich sterbe," where Sarraute hands over the interpretative and performative reins to the reader, who is invited to pursue the tropisms wherever they may lead: Ce ne sont là , vous le voyez, que quelques légers remous, quelques brèves ondulations captées parmi toutes celles, sans nombre, que ces mots produisent. Si certains d'entre vous trouvent ce jeu distrayant, ils peuvent—il y faut de la patience et du temps—s'amuser à en déceler d'autres. Ils pourront en tout cas être sûrs de ne pas se tromper, tout ce qu'ils apercevront est bien là , en chacun de nous. (18) Over the next few pages, I will take up Sarraute's...