Marie Cardinal

Cardinal, Marie (1929-2001). Born in Algeria, Cardinal is the author of over a dozen best-selling texts, many of autobiographical inspiration, in which the problems of the couple, of motherhood, and of writing dominate. She is best known for Les Mots pour le dire (1975), a novel fictionalizing her long, painful, but ultimately successful psychoanalysis. Autrement dit (1977) follows up some of the issues raised by her experience, and situates it more firmly in a feminist perspective. Au pays de mes racines (1980) explores her feelings about her native Algeria; Les Grands Désordres (1987) deals with the problems of heroin addiction within the framework of a mother-daughter relationship.

[Elizabeth Fallaize]