Interpretation as Mirage in Rachilde's `Le Château hermétique'

Critical debate over Rachilde's stance toward feminism has caused attempts to label the gendered aspects of her work. Yet, frequently, the writer's use of confusing gender symbols is a game of bait and switch that deludes and tricks interpreters. Nowhere is Rachilde more explicit in describing the subject of her narrative as its failed appropriation than in "Le Château hermétique," (published in Contes et nouvelles, 1924) the castletext that no one reaches. As soon as a critique of the story is constructed, it crumbles and collapses like the narrative supporting it, prolonging readers' exile from the meaning that they seek and proving that analyses are acts of self-narration. (RZ)