« Une femme aimée » – le seuil en verre, l'antichambre du consumérisme et l'univers des solitaires
"Une femme aimée" – the threshold in glass, the antechamber of consumerism and the universe of solitaries

Author(s): Ana-Maria Roșca
Subject(s): Cultural history, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), French Literature, Cultural Essay, Philology
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: mirror; threshold; memory; history; Catherine the Great; Andreï Makine;
Summary/Abstract: Usually, two cultures hold the reigns in Andreï Makine’s novels – the Russian matrix and the French catalyst. However, the novel “Une femme aimée” has a slightly different structure, because the Russian catalyst overpowers any other culture. Every time Oleg Erdmann turns a pocket mirror over and over in his hand, he thinks about the hidden alcove of the Empress Catherine the Great – a big, heavy threshold, made of glass, that falls and rises over the years. Meanwhile, Russia, as he knows it, changes and then ceases to exist. On the verge of this new world, the financial censorship tears the humanity apart even more than the pollical one did.

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