French Cultural Studies 292H1S

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French Cultural Studies292H1S

• Love, Sex and Desire
• in French Literature and Cinema
• Instructor Marie-Anne Visoi
• University of Toronto

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Marguerite Duras The Lover 1984
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Major Themes

• Love
• Sexuality
• Desire
• Transgression
• Self-discovery through the process of writing

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A new type of novel(nouveau roman)

• events of the plot, characters and emotions are
  presented through alternate perspectives
• voluntary memory plays an important part in
  the story time and space are manipulated
  throughout the novel according to the changing,
  unstable aspect of memory
• the reader is gradually drawn into the story by
  the truthfulness of the mature writer who talks
  about the hidden stretches of her youth (Page 8)

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Voluntary Memory

• the writer attempts to defy the time by making an
  effort to revive a significant event from her
  adolescence in Indochina
• by remembering her past, Duras understands the
  significance of the crossing of the river

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The Image that doesnt exist

• The photograph could only have been taken if
  someone could have known in advance how important
  it was to be in my life, that event, that
  crossing of the river. (Page 10)

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Narration

• the haunting image of the fifteen year old
  becomes the focus of narration
• the mature writer retells her own story, analyzes
  and reflects on the nature of her memorized
  desire and her sexuality in the form of an
  interior monologue

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Love and Erotic Pleasure

• Aristophanes myth in Symposium presents a
  view of love as intense desire and erotic
  pleasure felt at the restoration of the lost
  unity between the reunited halves. There are
  several passages in The Lover where Duras uses
  sensorial imagery in order to evoke the feelings
  of the two lovers.

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Love and Desire

• events from her past the symbolic meeting on the
  ferry, her feelings of an outsider during the
  initiation scene, sexuality and repressed
  love (the lover, Helene Lagonelle) will be
  recreated in her story
• the exploration of the young womans desire for
  the Chinese Lover becomes a source of creativity
  for the adult writer

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• The skin is sumptuously soft. The body.
• And, weeping, he makes love. At first pain. And
  then the pain is possessed in its turn, changed,
  slowly drawn away, borne toward pleasure, clasped
  to it.
• The sea, formless, simply beyond compare. (Page
  38)
• The lover from Cholon is so accustomed to the
  adolescence of the white girl, hes lost. The
  pleasure he takes in her every evening has
  absorbed all his time, all his life. (Page 99)

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Sexual Initiation

• the sexual act is described through the
  narrators straightforward, simple language and
  beautiful imagery
• the vivid descriptions pull the reader into the
  story due to the heightened emotional level
  created by the narrative voice
• And she, slow, patient, draws him to her and
  starts to undress him. With her eyes shut.
  Slowly. (Page 38)
• Whiffs of burnt sugar drift into the room, the
  smell of roasted peanuts, Chinese soups, roast
  meat, herbs, jasmine, dust, incense, charcoal
  fires, they carry fire about in baskets here,
  its sold in the street, the smell of the city is
  the smell of the villages upcountry, of the
  forest. (Page 41)

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Style characteristics

• a fragmented story told alternately from a first
  and third person point-of-view (the young, white
  girl on the ferry and the mature writer)
• portrayal of characters is inconsistent as it
  relies on fragments of memories recalled by the
  adult writer
• elliptic, short, repetitive sentences
  characterize the language of the novel
• metaphorical, sensorial descriptions (Mekong,
  Cholon)

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So its during the crossing of a branch of the
Mekong, on the ferry that plies between Vinh Long
and Sadec in the great plain of mud and rice in
southern Cochin China. The Plain of the Birds.
(Page 10)
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Its in Cholon. Opposite the boulevards
linking the Chinese part of the city to the
center of Saigon, the great American-style
streets full of streetcars, rickshaws, and buses.
Its early in the afternoon. (page 36)  The
noise of the city is very loud, in recollection
its like the sound track of a film turned up too
high, deafening. I remember clearly, the room is
dark, we dont speak, itès surrounded by the
continuous din of the city, caught up in the
city, swept along with it. There are no panes in
the windows, just shutters and blinds.  (page
40)
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Study questionsSocio-historical and cultural
context

• Why is the crossing of the ferry a rite of
  passage?
• Where is the novel set? What is the importance
  of this type of setting for the plot?
• How is the sexual initiation described in this
  context? Are race and culture important?
  Explain.

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Setting

• Read the following excerpt
• Dusk fell at the same time all the year round.
  It was very brief, almost like a blow. In the
  rainy season, for weeks on end, you couldnt see
  the sky, it was full of an unvarying mist which
  even the light of the moon couldnt pierce. In
  the dry season though, the sky was bare,
  completely free of cloud, naked. Even moonless
  nights were light. And the shadows were as
  clear-cut as ever on the ground, and on the
  water, roads and walls. (p. 81)
• What kind of mood does this setting evoke?

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Characters

• How is the lover described in the novel?
• Describe two major characters in The Lover. Use
  examples from the text to show how Marguerite
  Durass characterization techniques differ from
  those of a traditional novelist.
• Is there any similarity between Prousts and
  Durass description of characters? Justify your
  opinion.

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Passage Analysis

• Analyze your favourite passage. Discuss
  significant elements of style, structure and
  language such as
• Repetition
• Sensorial detail
• Narration
• Explain how the above elements contribute to the
  understanding of the novel.

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She was leaning on the rails, like the first
time, on the ferry. She knew he was watching her.
She was watching him too, she couldt see him any
more but she still looked toward the shape of the
black car. (Page 111-112)