The Greening of Marie NDiaye

Among Marie NDiaye's writings, Autoportrait en vert (2005) constitutes an anomalous case by virtue of the problematic status of its subject. The person who says "I” in this text does not pretend to possess her story; to the contrary, it escapes from her continually. What is the dimension of autoportraiture in this text? Who is the "femme en vert” who haunts the story? Autodiegesis is a powerful principle of narrative organization, yet this text puts that principle dramatically on trial in order to propose a different kind of textuality, one that is largely reconfigured with regard to literary convention.