Spectrophonics in Nathalie Sarraute's theater

Abstract

This essay aims to analyze how part of the theater of Nathalie Sarraute can be read as a “spectropoetic”, that is, conceived as a way of working the spectral element in its compositions by means of sound procedure. Guided by sonorous fragmentation, polyphony, vocal and figural duplication, Sarraute's pieces would have as a common feature the emphasis on the auditory dimension and on the acoustic universe of the operations characteristics of sound media, which would result in the creation of zones of tension between temporality and spatiality, sound matter of words and image. Beyond the semantic layer, the voice is thought not only through of the shock force of a material object, but also as the place of an absence that in it becomes a presence. These “spectropoetics” then would be configured as vocal experimentations and listening exercises marked by a lacunar trait, by reduplications and resonances that would characterize the indetermination of absence-presence as a privileged formal procedure of this dramaturgy.