La parola spasmodica di Joyce Mansour

This paper aims to explore some aspects of Joyce Mansour’s prose writing, with a particular focus on «Les spasmes du dimanches», a short story included in Les gisants satisfaits (1958). Joyce Mansour is nowadays considered an important surrealist poet. However, her late arrival in Paris didn’t allow her to play an active role during the best years of the movement. Furthermore, even if her poetic production has reached a certain degree of legitimation, her prose and theatrical works are still to be explored and offer a fresh area for critical investigation. We will focus, in particular, on the creative use of language which allows Mansour to explore, with a spasmodic and vital voice and in a more extended way than in her poems, the themes of Eros, death, depravation and sexuality, through the lens of the bretonian houmour noir.