La ouate, matière à penser

Abstract

Abstract:Asked about her poetics of vagueness in a 2023 interview, Marie NDiaye compared her literary universe to ouate. The French word stands out in an English-speaking context (what), but it also points to a network of sounds and textures that this article sets out to explore. Building on the work of Roland Barthes on the neutral, Jean-Pierre Richard on substances, and Dominique Rabaté on sounds and knowledge, I examine how wad-ding provides food for thought, literally “matter for thought” in French. The following pages trace the chronology of cotton wool’s occurrences in NDiaye’s works—first as a sound (brouhaha) then as an atmosphere (brouil-lard)—before extending the analysis to other fibers (wool, silk, felt) and related words in which we find the sound “oua.” By focusing on the first name Souhar and the city of Ouagadougou, I show that ouate, as insulation and signifier, is made of the same stuff than what characters seek to keep at bay.