Darrieussecq's Girl Talk: A Daughter of Cleves Learns Her Lines

Comparisons of Darrieussecq's Cleves with La Princesse de Cleves have raised critical furor, not least of all over the crude language of Darrieussecq's young protagonist, Solange. Such critical reflexes fail to consider a project consistent with earlier Darrieussecq works and also with Lafayette's chef-d'oeuvre: "se debarrasser des cliches,[...] arriver a. penser independamment." Cleves achieved independence, but only at the price of abstaining from the (sexual) culture of her era; Solange, on the other hand, will achieve independence (and cultural isolation) by engaging in the behaviors suggested by a ubiquitous sexual idiom that leads her away from the love she wished to experience. Darrieussecq risks being "vulgar" in order to flag the dangers of the commonplace and the unconsidered particularly for young girls.