Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras
Born	Marguerite Donnadieu (1914-04-04)4 April 1914 Saigon, Cochinchina, French Indochina (now Vietnam)
Died	3 March 1996(1996-03-03) (aged 81) Paris, France
Occupation	Novelist playwright filmmaker
Nationality	French
Period	1943–1995
Spouses	Robert Antelme Dionys Mascolo

Marguerite Donnadieu, known as Marguerite Duras (French: [maʁ.ɡə.ʁit dy.ʁas]; 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film Hiroshima mon amour (1959) earned her a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Born in French Indochina, to two teachers (immigrants from France), her first sexual experiences were those of an impoverished, clever, French girl, growing up in Indochina. She was sent to France before World War II (to continue her education), and experienced that war as a young woman in occupied France. Her experience of the war and of growing up in Indochina were to form much of the basis of her writing. (See the bibliography.)

Contents

• 
  1 Biography
  
  
  
  • 
    1.1 Youth
    
  
  
  • 
    1.2 Career
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2 Bibliography
  


• 
  3 Filmography as director
  


• 
  4 Further reading
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Biography

Youth

Duras was born Marguerite Donnadieu on April 4, 1914, in Gia-Dinh^[1] (near to Saigon), Cochinchina, French Indochina (now Vietnam); she was the only daughter of two teachers who had responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging French people to settle in the colony.^[2]

Duras's father fell ill soon after their arrival and returned to France, where he died. After his death, her mother remained in Indochina with her three children. The family lived in relative poverty after her mother made a bad investment in an isolated property and area of rice farmland in Cambodia.^[2] See, e.g. Un Barrage contre le Pacifique. The difficult life that the family experienced during this period was highly influential on Duras's later work. An affair between the teenaged Duras and Huynh Thuy Le, the son of a rich Sa Đéc merchant, was to be treated several times (described in quite contrasting ways) in her subsequent memoirs and fiction. See, e.g. Un Barrage contre le Pacifique, L'amant, L'Amant de la Chine du Nord. She also reported being beaten by her mother during this period.^{[citation needed]}

At 17, Duras went to France, her parents' native country, where she began studying for a degree in mathematics. She soon abandoned this to concentrate on political science, then law.^[2] After completing her studies, through 1941, she worked for the French government in the Ministry of the Colonies;^[2] in the 1930s she also changed her name to Marguerite Duras. She married in 1939 to the writer Robert Antelme.^[2]

During World War II, from 1942 to 1944, Duras worked for the Vichy government in an office that allocated paper quotas to publishers (in the process operating a de facto book-censorship system), but she also became an active member of the PCF (the French Communist Party).^[2] and a member of the French Resistance as a part of a small group that also included François Mitterrand, who later became President of France and remained a lifelong friend of Duras.^[2] Her husband, Antelme, was deported to Buchenwald in 1944^[3] for his involvement in the Resistance, and barely survived the experience (weighing on his release, according to Duras, just 38 kg). She nursed him back to health, but they divorced once he recovered his health.

In 1943, for her first published novel Les Impudents, she decided to use as pen name the surname of Duras, a village in the Lot-et-Garonne département, where her father's house was located.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Duras was the author of many novels, plays, films, interviews, essays, and works of short fiction, including her best-selling, highly fictionalized autobiographical work L'Amant (1984), translated into English as The Lover, which describes her youthful affair with a Chinese man. It won the Goncourt prize in 1984.^[4] The story of her adolescence also appears in three other books: The Sea Wall, Eden Cinema and The North China Lover. A film version of The Lover, produced by Claude Berri and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, was released to great success in 1992. Duras's novel The Sea Wall was first adapted into the 1958 film This Angry Age by René Clément, and again in 2008 by Cambodian director Rithy Panh as The Sea Wall.^{[citation needed]}

Other major works include Moderato Cantabile (1958), which was the basis of the 1960 film Seven Days... Seven Nights; Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein (1964); and her play India Song, which Duras herself later directed as a film in 1975. She was also the screenwriter of the 1959 French film Hiroshima mon amour, which was directed by Alain Resnais.^[5] Duras's early novels were fairly conventional in form, and were criticized for their "romanticism" by fellow writer Raymond Queneau; however, with Moderato Cantabile, she became more experimental, paring down her texts to give ever-increasing importance to what was not said. She was associated with the nouveau roman French literary movement, although she did not belong definitively to any one group. She was noted for her command of dialogue.^[6]

Many of her works, such as Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein and L'Homme assis dans le couloir (1980), deal with human sexuality.^[7] Her films are also experimental in form; most eschew synchronized sound, using voice over to allude to, rather than tell, a story; spoken text is juxtaposed with images whose relation to what is said may be more-or-less indirect. Despite her success as a writer, Duras's adult life was also marked by personal challenges, including a recurring struggle with alcoholism. In 1983 she was awarded the Grand Prix du Théâtre de l'Académie française. In 1998, No More was recognized as a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best of Nonfiction book.^{[citation needed]}

Duras died in Paris on March 3,1996, aged 81.^[8] Her funeral, held in the packed church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, was highlighted with several musical recordings, including a piano version of "India Song". She is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• 
  Les Impudents, Plon, 1943


• 
  La Vie tranquille, Gallimard, 1944.


• 
  Un barrage contre le Pacifique, Gallimard, 1950
  
  • translated by Herma Briffault as The Sea Wall, 1952
  
  


• 
  Le Marin de Gibraltar, Gallimard, 1952
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as The Sailor from Gibraltar, 1966
  
  


• 
  Les petits chevaux de Tarquinia, Gallimard, 1953
  
  • translated by Peter DuBerg as The Little Horses of Tarquinia, 1960
  
  


• 
  Des journées entières dans les arbres, "Le Boa", "Madame Dodin", "Les Chantiers", Gallimard, 1954
  
  • translated by Anita Barrows as Whole Days in the Trees, 1984
  
  


• 
  Le Square, Gallimard, 1955 (tr. The Square, 1959)


• 
  Moderato Cantabile, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1958
  
  • translated by Richard Seaver as Moderato Cantabile, 1977
  
  


• 
  Les Viaducs de la Seine et Oise, Gallimard, 1959.


• 
  Dix heures et demie du soir en été, Paris, 1960
  
  • translated by Anne Borchardt as Ten-Thirty on a Summer Night, London, 1961
  
  


• 
  Hiroshima mon amour, Gallimard, 1960
  
  • translated by Barbara Wright & Richard Seaver as Hiroshima mon amour, 1961
  
  


• "Les deux ghettos", in: France-Observateur, 9 November 1961, p. 8–10


• 
  L'après-midi de M. Andesmas, Gallimard, 1960
  
  • translated by Anne Borchardt and Barbara Bray as The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas, 1964
  
  


• 
  Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, Gallimard, 1964
  
  • translated by Richard Seaver as The Ravishing of Lol Stein, 1964
  
  


• Théâtre I: les Eaux et Forêts-le Square-La Musica, Gallimard, 1965 (tr. The Rivers and the Forests, 1964; The Square; La Musica, 1965)


• 
  Le Vice-Consul, Gallimard, 1965
  
  • translated by Eileen Ellenborgener as The Vice-Consul, 1968
  
  


• 
  L'Amante Anglaise (fr), Gallimard, 1967
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as L'Amante Anglaise, 1968
  
  


• 
  Théâtre II: Suzanna Andler-Des journées entières dans les arbres-Yes, peut-être-Le Shaga-Un homme est venu me voir, Gallimard, 1968.


• 
  Détruire, dit-elle, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1969
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Destroy, She Said
    
  
  


• 
  Abahn Sabana David, Gallimard, 1970.


• 
  L'Amour, Gallimard, 1971
  
  • translated by Kazim Ali and Libby Murphy as L'Amour
    
  
  


• 
  Ah! Ernesto, Hatlin Quist, 1971.


• 
  India Song, Gallimard, 1973
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as India Song, 1976
  
  


• 
  Nathalie Granger, suivi de "La Femme du Gange", Gallimard, 1973.


• 
  Le Camion, suivi de "Entretien avec Michelle Porte", Les Éditions de Minuit, 1977.


• 
  L'Eden Cinéma, Mercure de France, 1977
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Eden Cinema, 1992
  
  


• 
  Le Navire Night, suivi de Cesarée, les Mains négatives, Aurélia Steiner, Mercure de France, 1979.
  
  • translated by Susan Dwyer as The Ship "Night"
    
  
  


• 
  Vera Baxter ou les Plages de l'Atlantique, Albatros, 1980.


• 
  L'Homme assis dans le couloir, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1980
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as The Man Sitting in the Corridor, 1991
  
  


• 
  L'Été 80, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1980.


• 
  Les Yeux verts, Cahiers du cinéma, n.312–313, June 1980 and a new edition, 1987
  
  • translated by Carol Barko as Green Eyes, 1990
  
  


• 
  Agatha, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1981 (tr. Agatha)


• 
  Outside, Albin Michel, 1981
  
  • translated by Arthur Goldhammer as Outside, 1986
  
  


• 
  L'Homme atlantique, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982
  
  • translated by Alberto Manguel as The Atlantic Man, 1993
  
  


• 
  Savannah Bay, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982, 2ème edition augmentée, 1983 (tr. Savannah Bay, 1992)


• 
  La Maladie de la mort, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1982
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as The Malady of Death, 1986
  
  


• Théâtre III: -La Bête dans la jungle, d'après H. James, adaptation de J. Lord et M. Duras, -Les Papiers d'Aspern, d'après H. James, adaptation de M. Duras et R. Antelme, -La Danse de mort, d'après A. Strindberg, adaptation de M. Duras, Gallimard, 1984.


• 
  L'Amant, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1984. Awarded the 1984 Prix Goncourt
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as The Lover
    
  
  


• 
  La Douleur, POL, 1985
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as The War
    
  
  


• 
  La Musica deuxième, Gallimard, 1985.


• 
  Les Yeux bleus Cheveux noirs, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1986
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Blue Eyes, Black Hair, 1987
  
  


• 
  La Pute de la côte normande, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1986.
  
  • translated by Alberto Manguel as The Slut of the Normandy Coast, 1993
  
  


• 
  La Vie matérielle, POL, 1987
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Practicalities, 1990
  
  


• 
  Emily L., Les Éditions de Minuit, 1987
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Emily L.
    
  
  


• 
  La Pluie d'été, POL, 1990
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Summer Rain
    
  
  


• 
  L'Amant de la Chine du Nord, Gallimard, 1991
  
  • translated by Leigh Hafrey as The North China Lover, 1992
  
  


• 
  Yann Andréa Steiner, Gallimard, 1992
  
  • translated by Barbara Bray as Yann Andrea Steiner, 1993
  
  


• 
  Agatha, Savannah Bay, The Post-Apollo Press, 1992 (tr. Howard Limoli)


• 
  Écrire, Gallimard, 1993
  
  • translated by Mark Polizzotti as Writing, 2011
  
  


• 
  C'est tout, POL, 1995
  
  • translated by Richard Howard as No More, 2000^[9]
    
  
  

Filmography as director

• 
  Les Enfants (1984)


• 
  Il Dialogo di Roma (1982)


• 
  L'Homme atlantique (1981)


• 
  Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981)


• 
  Aurelia Steiner (1979)


• 
  Aurélia Steiner (1979)


• 
  Le Navire Night (1979)


• 
  Césarée (1978)


• 
  Les Mains négatives (1978)


• 
  Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)


• 
  Le Camion (1977)


• 
  Des journées entières dans les arbres (1976)


• 
  Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (1976)


• 
  India Song (1975)


• 
  La Femme du Gange (1974)


• 
  Nathalie Granger (1972)


• 
  Jaune le soleil (1972)


• 
  Détruire, dit-elle (1969)


• 
  La Musica (1967)

Further reading

• 
  Montalbán, Manuel Vázquez; Glasauer, Willi (1988). Scenes from World Literature and Portraits of Greatest Authors. Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}.


• 
  Glassman, Deborah N. (1991). Marguerite Duras: Fascinating Vision and Narrative Cure. Rutherford, New Jersey; London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses. ISBN 0838633374.
  
  ISBN 9780838633373.^[10]
  


• 
  Hill, Leslie (10 July 1993). Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires. London, New York City: Routledge. ISBN 0415050480.
  
  ISBN 978-0415050487.^[11]
  


• 
  Schuster, Marilyn R. (1993). Marguerite Duras Revisited. New York City: Twayne. ISBN 0805782982.
  
  ISBN 9780805782981.


• 
  Vircondelet, Alain (1994). Duras: A Biography. Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 1564780651.
  
  ISBN 9781564780652.


• 
  Adler, Laure. (1998), Marguerite Duras: A Life, Trans. Anne-Marie Glasheen, London: Orion Books.


• 
  Crowley, Martin (2000). Duras, Writing, and the Ethical. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198160135.
  
  ISBN 9780198160137.


• 
  Harvey, Robert; Alazet, Bernard; Volat, Hélène (2009). Les Écrits de Marguerite Duras: Bibliographie des oeuvres et de la critique, 1940–2006. Paris: IMEC. p. 530.
  


• Selous, Trista (1988), The Other Woman: Feminism and Feminity in the Work of Marguerite Duras, New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 876 9780300042870.

References

1. 
   ^ "Bnf: Notice de personne: Duras, Marguerite ((1914-1996)" (in French). Retrieved 18 September 2018.
   


2. 
   ^ ^abcdefg Riding, Alan. "Marguerite Duras, 81, Author Who Explored Love and Sex". New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
   


3. 
   ^ "Transport parti de Compiègne le 17 août 1944 (I.265.)" (in French). Retrieved 31 July 2018.
   


4. 
   ^ "Le Palmarès". Académie Goncourt.
   


5. 
   ^ "The Criterion Collection – Hiroshima Mon Amour". The Criterion Collection.
   


6. 
   ^ "Marguerite Duras". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2012.
   


7. 
   ^ Alex Hughes, "Erotic Writing" in Hughes and Keith Reader,
   Encyclopedia of contemporary French culture, (pp. 187–88). London, Routledge, 1998,
   ISBN 0415131863
   


8. 
   ^ Coward, David (March 4, 1996). "Passion into Prose: Obituary: Marguerite Duras". The Guardian. p. 12.
   


9. 
   ^ No More at Seven Stories Press.
   


10. 
    ^ Marguerite Duras: Fascinating Vision and Narrative Cure at Google Books.
    


11. 
    ^ "Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires" at Google Books.
    

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marguerite Duras.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Marguerite Duras

• 
  Marguerite Duras on IMDb


• 
  Marguerite Duras at Find a Grave
  


• Edmund White, "In Love with Duras", The New York Review of Books, 26 June 2008


• Emilie Bickerton, "The Timeless Marguerite Duras", The Times Literary Supplement, 25 July 2007

v t e Recipients of the Austrian State Prize for European Literature

Zbigniew Herbert (1965) W. H. Auden (1966) Vasko Popa (1967) Václav Havel (1968) Not given (1969) Eugène Ionesco (1970) Peter Huchel (1971) Sławomir Mrożek (1972) Harold Pinter (1973) Sándor Weöres (1974) Miroslav Krleža (1975) Italo Calvino (1976) Pavel Kohout (1977) Fulvio Tomizza (1977) Simone de Beauvoir (1978) Fulvio Tomizza (1979) Sarah Kirsch (1980) Doris Lessing (1981) Tadeusz Różewicz (1982) Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1983) Christa Wolf (1984) Stanisław Lem (1985) Giorgio Manganelli (1986) Milan Kundera (1987) Andrzej Szczypiorski (1988) Marguerite Duras (1989) Helmut Heissenbüttel (1990) Péter Nádas (1991) Salman Rushdie (1992) Chinghiz Aitmatov (1993) Inger Christensen (1994) Aleksandar Tišma (1995) Jürg Laederach (1996) Antonio Tabucchi (1997) Dubravka Ugrešić (1998) Péter Esterházy (1999) António Lobo Antunes (2000) Umberto Eco (2001) Christoph Hein (2002) Cees Nooteboom (2003) Julian Barnes (2004) Claudio Magris (2005) Jorge Semprún (2006) A. L. Kennedy (2007) Agota Kristof (2008) Per Olov Enquist (2009) Paul Nizon (2010) Javier Marías (2011) Patrick Modiano (2012) John Banville (2013) Lyudmila Ulitskaya (2014) Mircea Cărtărescu (2015) Andrzej Stasiuk (2016) Karl Ove Knausgård (2017)

v t e French New Wave
Cahiers du Cinéma Directors	Claude Chabrol Jean-Luc Godard Éric Rohmer Jacques Rivette François Truffaut
Left Bank	Henri Colpi Marguerite Duras Armand Gatti Chris Marker Alain Resnais Alain Robbe-Grillet Agnès Varda
Other filmmakers	Philippe de Broca Jacques Demy Jean Douchet Jean Eustache Georges Franju Pierre Kast Louis Malle Jean-Pierre Melville Luc Moullet Jacques Rozier Straub–Huillet Roger Vadim
Theoretical influences	Alexandre Astruc André Bazin Robert Bresson Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Henri Langlois Joseph-Marie Lo Duca Jean Rouch
Key films	Le Coup du Berger (1956) Le Beau Serge (1958) Le Signe du Lion (1959) The 400 Blows (1959) Hiroshima mon amour (1959) Breathless (1960) Adieu Philippine (1962) Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) La Jetée (1962)
Related	Auteurism Cahiers du cinéma Cinémathèque Française Jump cut Two in the Wave (2010 documentary)

v t e Marguerite Duras
Books written	The Sea Wall Moderato Cantabile Ten-Thirty on a Summer Night The Ravishing of Lol Stein The Malady of Death The Lover La Douleur Blue Eyes, Black Hair
Screenplays	Hiroshima mon amour
Films directed	La Musica Détruire, dit-elle Nathalie Granger India Song Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert The Lorry The Children

• Biography portal

Authority control	BIBSYS: 90053993 BNE: XX1721350 BNF: cb119013498 (data) CiNii: DA0014981X GND: 118528254 ISNI: 0000 0001 2144 7168 LCCN: n2007031536 LNB: 000007327 MusicBrainz: 7ccf137d-7405-4285-9f83-e297e6d7df6c NDL: 00438450 NKC: jn19990001925 NLA: 35050909 NSK: 000000967 ICCU: ITICCUCFIV16886 SELIBR: 184201 SNAC: w6rf6kmh SUDOC: 027405168 VIAF: 10365 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 10365

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here