Centering/framing: a use of Yourcenarian correspondence

Abstract

Marguerite Yourcenar was a prolific letter-writer. She wrote thousands of letters, of which nowadays only a few hundred have been published. She did not separate  the use of letters from the composition of her work and the construction of her identity as a writer. Continuing in the vein of the articles we have devoted to this correspondence, we analyse here a particular feature of Yourcenar’s approach: centering the letter on a specific issue that has escaped the attention of the reader, thus framing the reception of the work beyond its mere literary production.