L’émoi douloureux du regard divergeant chez Nelly Arcan, de Putain à Burqa de chair

This article examines the autobiographical collection Burqa de chair (2011) by Nelly Arcan in the light of her first novel Putain (2001). After an outline of the writer’s production, the analysis develops on the paradox, highlighted by Nancy Huston in the Préface, between the femi- nine character’s object status – as suggested by her condition as a prosti- tute – and her status as a subject, determined by her enunciative activity. Through an analysis of genre in the two novels, this study insists on the notion of storytelling and widens the paradox into paradigm, connecting it to a new system of focus introduced by the narrator in Burqa de chair. The representation of numerous objects reflecting the image of the pro- tagonist allows postulating the presence of a double focus, alienating and deadly, the last avatar of the paradox and place of a painful turmoil, which is the scandalous core of Nelly Arcan’s writing.