Main points of Ravaged Spaces: Same-sex Desire in Violette Leduc's Therese and Isabelle

The original article can be found at https://www.academia.edu/29244354/Ravaged_Spaces_Same_sex_Desire_in_Violette_Leduc_s_Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_et_Isabelle.

I remember seeing the movie when I was in college. It had a strong effect on me but I didn't really understand why until much later.

I've read two versions of the book. One was based on the movie itself and different in various ways from the original book. The movie itself differs in ways from both books, especially the ending.

So, here are some of the main points of the essay at the above sites and my comments.

The author refers to 'graphic, intense and often violent sex scenes' between the two women and notes it takes up about half of the book. It 'depicts adolescent love and is at its most 'acute and obsessive'

(This refers to the book and not to the movie. I don't remember anything between the girls that would violent. Graphic and intense, yes, but not graphic.)

'...the novel itself theorizes female same-sex drive as something unsustainable, something that will always be contained and, eventually, eliminated.'

The girls relationship is brought to a sudden end. This, though, led me to consider a problem. So, the the two girls have been very close and having sex. It's obvious they care deeply for each other. So, during that time, wouldn't at some point they have exchanged addresses? For one thing the school is not year round so it's obvious that they would be separated at least for a while.

So, wouldn't have it been logical for the girls to exchange addresses? If they had Therese could have found where Isabelle went to and at the very least written to her. To me that's a logical matter.

The author says that Therese has been at the school for thirty days. We don't know, though, how many more days she was there with her relationship with Isabelle.

'Therese is admittedly unpopular.' That's possible but I didn't see a whole lot of things backing that up.

'The initial encounter is admittedly tame compared to later sexual exchanges in Isabelle's cell...' That is pretty normal, actually. Almost any two people who begin to really like/love the other will generally wait at least for a while to have sex.

The girls do about everything sexual (within reason) that they can, the article points out.

One interesting thing the article points out is that in the book the girls are in a big room and divided by hanging cloth or something so that each one has some 'private' space. That means each one has her own cell. In the movie there are regular rooms. The author notes that the setup can be equated in a way to being in a prison which makes sense.

The author notes that the sex they do have 'it's never solely pleasurable.' When in their cells they have to be very careful not to alert the other girls or the monitor of what they are doing. When they go to the place in town Therese is really put off by the noise coming from the next room where a guy is having sex with a woman so Therese can't really relax and do anything with Isabelle. He notes that '...there is no proper space for what they're doing.'

He goes on to say that "Therese and Isabelle are never given a space of their own.' That, of course, makes their relationship very difficult to carry on.