Marguerite Duras: A Thematic and Technical Study.

This thesis attempts to examine the works of Marguerite Duras up to the year 1970. Duras has written novels and plays, and more recently film-scenarios; she has also directed films based on her own works. All these aspects of her output are discussed. After a brief introduction outlining Marguerite Duras's life and artistic development, the thesis divides into two parts: "Thematic Continuity" and "Technique and Style".

In the first part Duras's works are studied for their close thematic similarities. In her outlook on the human condition, Duras wavers between optimism and pessimism. She writes principally about love, which according to her can offer self-fulfilment and spiritual release; it is an intensely passionate experience; yet its survival is never guaranteed and it may lead to unhappiness (ch.l). Duras is obsessed by the idea of loneliness, though she always holds out the possibility that men and women will enter into contact (ch.2). Human existence is presented as claustrophobic, often painful, yet Duras shows how ordinary people are capable of escaping from it, or of rebelling against it (chapters 3» 4). Time, too, can be both friend and enemy, fulfilling an individual's aspirations, but more frequently bringing change for the worse (ch. 5 ). A further theme in her work, related to that of time, is the way in which individuals are linked with their past through the processes of memory (ch.6).

Since 1964, the majority of Duras's works have centred on madness, and the next two chapters cover what she considers at present her most important ideas (chapters 7, 8). Madness is seen as a means of self-liberation. The idea is crucial to Duras's present political concerns, since madness offers the key to transcendence and a new fora of Communism, as Duras conceives it. The ninth chapter covers two minor themes: the relationship between parent and child, and the effect of sexuality upon personal development.

The second part of the thesis studies Duras's experiments in form, which throw light on meaning and the writer's attitude to her material. Duras's novel-techniques have been dictated by her rejection of authorial omniscience and the novel "S. la Balzac". The angle of vision is severely restricted. Duras has dispensed with psychological analysis of all characters save the central figure. Conversation therefore assumes capital importance in her aesthetic; it is skilfully fashioned to hint at psychic states and unarticulated thoughts (ch.10). Chapter 11 deals with technique in the plays, which again are totally dependent upon conversation; the tempo of the dialogue gives the plays their shape. Both as script-writer and film-director, Duras exploits the resources of the cinema for dramatic effect and to underline theme (ch.12).

In chapter 13, the essential aspects of Duras's style are examined. The discussion is primarily concerned with style in the novels, but shows how stylistic devices have been transferred from one genre to another. The thesis concludes by describing Duras's position as a writer today.