Personal trauma in narrative form
Dominique Sigaud's recently published book Pute vierge is described as a concise narrative that delves into the body subjected to violent assault. The work recounts Sigaud's personal experiences of aggression by her father and sexual assault by a stranger when she was sixteen.Global perspectives on female trauma
The narrative also reflects on the bodies of other women and girls she has given voice to in countries such as Egypt, India, and the United States, as previously explored in her 2019 book La Malédiction d’être fille. It is described as a collection of narratives that unfold like an abrupt ball of yarn, aiming to oppose what these men took from her and to bring forth the shape of her self.Narrative as resistance
By reviving her voice, the book seeks to make emerge what was played out. Sigaud's first sexual experience at fifteen is noted as a counter-narrative that allowed her to disengage from her "family of conformist Catholic notables." However, this act was taken from her by the intrusion of her father, who entered her room and asked her to "lower her pants" to give her a spanking.Language as liberation
The narrative returns, refusing to be crushed, to free language and violence from their coercive charge. The book is noted for its double entry, where the writer revives paralyzed words by exploding their double regime and meaning. The text describes a hollow at the center of oneself, both the girl's sex and the abyss that later lodges in her consciousness.Reclaiming power through fragmentation
Sigaud is said to "reverse the relationship," both the sexual relationship imposed by the stranger who assaulted her and the logical relationship, the meaning. By shaking her words, she reclaims power. The narrative is described as fragmented, with Sigaud transforming the split of her being into a weapon, turning it into an acting, insolent machine.Limit and liberation
The abyss is said to concern only a part of her body and consciousness, while another part does not think any less, infusing and escaping. The form of the fragment allows for trimming and sanding down the event, writing a text-plane whose very gesture is a choice: what one decides to write and not to write. The book aims to say what was done to her but to maintain a limit, to retreat the humiliation.A new narrative of power
Ultimately, it is described as reducing to pieces the "monument of founding fathers" and their secular power, presenting a narrative of the "inverted feminine," which flows over us all, flooding us with its liberating water. Pute vierge by Dominique Sigaud is published by Inculte and Actes Sud, priced at 15.50 € and available in bookstores.
