ABSTRACT
As Suzanne Simonin described in her earlier remarks to the marquis regarding the eavesdropping scene, focusing on the reader/spectator during the process itself negatively influences the writing. Her statement “Ces memoires que j’ecrivais a la hate” suggests her complete immersion in her creation. The artist/ideal actor must carry-out a self-mystification in order to totally identify with his/her creation —postscript becomes preamble, for the creator already comprehends the duplicity involved in mimesis but must convince him/herself that he knows nothing. Unlike the magic ring and talking genitalia in his Les Bijoux indiscrets, the tormented life of Suzanne is generally believable. Film director Guillaume Nicloux facilitated a happy ending in his adaptation of La Religieuse, in which the marquis is Suzanne’s lost and resurrected biological father who welcomes her into his home and bestows upon her the legitimacy for which she has been searching.
