Sister-Brother Incest, Androgyny, and Death: Les souffleurs by Cécile Ladjali and Ce qu’il en reste by Julie Hivon

In twenty-first-century women’s writing in French, sister-brother incest, often accompanied by violent death, is surprisingly frequent. As examples of this trend, this article analyzes a Québec novel, Ce qu’il en reste (2005) by Julie Hivon, and one French one, Les Souffleurs (2004) by Cécile Ladjali, both stories of passionate love between a twin sister and brother. Both involve blurring the boundaries between self and other, male and female, life and death, that suggest a deep fascination with such transgressions as pointing to potentially renewed family constellations, male-female relations, and forms of artistic creativity.