Picture Theory

A novel first published in French in 1982, ‘Picture Theory’ demonstrates Nicole Brossard’s fiction theorique and her preoccupation with the difficulty of writing and reading woman. The title (taken from Wittgenstein) implies her reference to the hologram as a new pictorial model for woman; like the hologram which is intended to be read from an infinite number of changing conditions, Brossard’s text abstracts the image of the feminine so that it can be read from all angles. Centred on four women, this novel of lesbian love moves from Curacao to Montreal, from New York to Paris. Essentially, Picture Theory poses the question of what is a novel.