“L’air d’un peintre ou d’un marginal”. The ekphrastic writing of Françoise Sagan

Abstract

Analysing Françoise Sagan’s Le Lit défait (1977), La Femme fardée (1981), La Laisse (1989) and Le Miroir égaré (1996), this article investigates the instances in which painting is at the centre of Sagan’s narrative by means of ekphrasis. Through a process of regeneration, the author (re)creates paintings that can come to life and that the characters can interact with, constantly moving in and out of them, turning the images into real scenarios of the stories. Among identifiable referents, creative inventions and processes of (parodic) rewriting, ekphrasis reveals itself as a central element in Sagan’s writing.