Camille Laurens' 'Ni toi ni moi': A Novel on Love's Impossibility
Camille Laurens' novel 'Ni toi ni moi' (Éditions P.O.L.) explores love through the lens of an unfilmable film, blending literature, cinema, and autofiction. The book is structured as an email exchange with a director who wants to adapt one of her stories, but the project becomes a meditation on love's inherent failure. Laurens argues that love is inseparable from the fear of its end, and writing cannot resurrect lost love. The novel references Benjamin Constant's 'Adolphe,' positioning Laurens in a tradition of sentimental libertinage where psychological analysis trumps bodily pleasure. The work is both an anti-film and an anti-novel, denying its own purpose while grappling with the impossibility of capturing love in language.
Key facts
- Camille Laurens is the author of 'Ni toi ni moi'.
- The novel is published by Éditions P.O.L.
- The book is constructed at the intersection of literature, cinema, and autofiction.
- It is structured as an email exchange with a director adapting one of Laurens' stories.
- The film project is described as unfilmable, possibly only achievable by Marguerite Duras.
- Laurens posits that love is consubstantial with the fear of not being loved.
- The novel references Benjamin Constant's 'Adolphe' as a key influence.
- The work is characterized as both an anti-film and an anti-novel.
- Léa Bismuth is the author of the review.
- The review was published in artpress in October 2006.
Entities
Artists
- Camille Laurens
- Marguerite Duras
- Benjamin Constant
- Léa Bismuth
Institutions
- Éditions P.O.L.
- artpress
Sources
- artpress —