In Search of a Face

Originally written in French and Occitan, this narrative poem unfolds at a time that precedes Homer’s tale. Explaining why She has no name, author Aurélia Lassaque tells us “her name is unknown, for her story has been subsumed in his story and the rewritings of history”. But although ‘She’ has no name, Aurélia gives her a voice in Occitan, through which we re-encounter perennial themes of love and abandonment, war and separation, and the loss of identity they engender. An echo of formal Greek poïesis, at a time before drama, song and poetry were separated, this text was conceived as much for the stage as for the page. It comprises eight Cantos with prose poems in Occitan, while a third voice adopts in French the role of the chorus in ancient classical drama.