Au « Pays des pays perdus » : L’Enfant et le soldat de Marie Étienne

Abstract

L’Enfant et le soldat, an autobiographical fiction, tells the story of a little girl, Nine, and of her family in Indochina during the World War II Japanese invasion. This work concentrates on spaces, open or closed, fixed or moving, in which the child re-invents herself. They all tell the same story of loss, death, and re-creation. Loss and disintegration, but also the “ailleurs,” the beyond of all possibilities, take shape in the movement of repeated departures. At the end of the journey, beyond vanishing spaces, is the unknown country, where all the places forever lost, forever remembered and re-invented lie, and where the past inscribes itself in the manifold space of writing.

Keywords:

• Marie Étienne
• L'Enfant et le soldat
• Indochina
• Space