The lover marguerite duras analysis. The Lover (Duras novel) 2023-01-07

The lover marguerite duras analysis Rating: 5,7/10 575 reviews

The Lover, by Marguerite Duras, is a semi-autobiographical novel that tells the story of a teenage girl's affair with a wealthy Chinese man in French Indochina. The novel, which was published in 1984, is a powerful and haunting exploration of love, desire, and the complex relationships between colonizers and colonized.

At the heart of The Lover is the relationship between the teenage girl, who is never named, and her lover, who is referred to only as "the Chinese." The girl is the daughter of poor, abusive parents and is sent to live with her wealthy grandmother in Saigon. There, she meets the Chinese, who is much older than her and comes from a family of wealthy merchants. Despite the significant age difference and the societal taboo against their relationship, the girl and the Chinese fall deeply in love.

One of the most striking aspects of The Lover is the way that Duras portrays the power dynamics in the relationship between the girl and the Chinese. On the surface, the Chinese appears to be in a position of power, as he is wealthy and has the ability to provide for the girl in a way that her own family cannot. However, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that the girl is actually the one who holds the power in the relationship. She is the one who initiates the affair and who ultimately decides to end it, despite the Chinese's pleas for her to stay with him.

This portrayal of power dynamics is further complicated by the fact that the Chinese is a colonizer and the girl is a colonized subject. The Chinese represents the French colonial presence in Indochina, while the girl represents the Vietnamese people who are being colonized. The relationship between the two becomes a metaphor for the larger relationship between colonizers and colonized, with the girl's love and desire for the Chinese serving as a commentary on the way that the colonized often become enamored with their colonizers, even as they are being oppressed by them.

Throughout the novel, Duras uses the girl's love for the Chinese to explore themes of identity and self-discovery. As the girl falls in love with the Chinese, she begins to question her own identity and the roles that society has prescribed for her. She struggles with the conflict between her desire for the Chinese and the expectations placed upon her as a young woman in a traditional society. In the end, she makes the difficult decision to leave the Chinese and forge her own path, symbolically rejecting the role that society has assigned to her and asserting her own independence.

In conclusion, The Lover is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores themes of love, power, and identity in the context of colonialism and cultural conflict. Through the lens of the relationship between the girl and the Chinese, Duras offers a nuanced and insightful examination of the complexities of human relationships and the ways in which they are shaped by societal expectations and power dynamics.

Key Theories of Marguerite Duras

the lover marguerite duras analysis

Cite this page as follows: "The Lover - Summary" eNotes Publishing Ed. It is in flux, as it is in life in all of us, as we remember. The Id houses the libido; the source of psychosexual energy. For the lover is the first to hear and believe that the child wants to become a writer. . No path, no line.

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The Lover

the lover marguerite duras analysis

The major characters of the book are the narrator, whose obsessive remembrances of her days as a high school student in Saigon center the novel; the Chinese lover, whose. . . Short sentences focus on small details, thus slowing the rhythm of the articulation of the intrigue. Richard Seaver, New York: Grove Press. The Lover was first published in 1984 and was a major critical and commercial success: it won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt, and has sold almost three million copies and been translated into over 40 languages.

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The Lover Summary & Study Guide

the lover marguerite duras analysis

Through open display of her poverty and sexuality the young girl is now able to reassign her place in society and distance herself from the impositions put on French women in the colony. The narrator—and many of the supporting characters—remain unnamed. The second date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. The novel tells the story of a young French girl living in Colonial French Indochina during the early 1930s. The torture of memory is erosion. In return, the wealthy Chinese man helps support her family.

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The Lover Analysis

the lover marguerite duras analysis

In The North China Lover, the reader hears the sound of coins clinking in the background. In this telling, the lover is ugly — Duras is blunt about that. Despite their intense connection, both the narrator and her lover know that their relationship is doomed; if anyone were to discover their affair, it would spell disaster for them both. When Paris is liberated, the narrator's personal life goes through a period of upheaval. . Duras' other well-known novels include The Sea Wall, Moderato Cantabile and The Ravishing of Lol Stein.

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An Analysis of Marguerite Duras's Novel The Lover

the lover marguerite duras analysis

Annaud shows close-up shots of the rubbed off coating on her shoes and the lose threads on her dress, before even revealing her face. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge. This clear and detailed 24-page reading guide is structured as follows: Biography of Marguerite Duras Presentation of The Lover Summary of The Lover Character study The narrator The Chinese man The mother The older brother The younger brother, Paulo Hélène Lagonelle Analysis of The Lover Close in style to the New Novel A writing of the self A coming-of-age novel About The Lover The Lover is an autobiographical novel which tells the story of a teenage girl living in French Indochina where Duras was born and her encounter with a wealthy young Chinese man. As her family s fortunes decline, she begins a sexual. . The hints of prostitution in the other books become even more open here. The girl narrates the novel from the perspective of years and life experience.


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Marguerite Duras’s The Lover: But, but, but … did it really happen?

the lover marguerite duras analysis

. The girl claims that her brothers never say a word to him, The narrator and her lover present an antithesis to this colonial model, united briefly in their subversion of the social mores that prevent their relationship. Usually, the story occurs in the first-person perspective of the young girl or her much-older self. Mann adeptly combines autonomous analysis with existing theories to provide a study which confidently handles often complex and difficult issues. Both her parents had been married previously and had met in Vietnam. .

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sexuality

the lover marguerite duras analysis

Interestingly, he is also the lover of Pierre's wife, Tatiana Karl and meets her weekly in a hotel… He, however, visits the Pierre's often and it is during one of those visits that he sees an unknown woman who Tatianna later calls Lola. The Mekong ferry boat existed, anyway. Just as it is possible to respond to suffering by suffering oneself, so readers may respond to Duras empathetically, in a fascinated rather than an analytical way. Marguerite Duras spent her early years in prewar French Indochina. While active in the Resistance with Francois Mitterand, Duras, in 1944, joined the communist party, from which she was expelled in 1950. .


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To Remember is Also to Lose: Marguerite Duras’ The Lover

the lover marguerite duras analysis

. In order to do this, she needs to masculinise herself. The narrator's later life often consists of periods of introspection about her family and her relationship with the lover. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. It is the means whereby she can begin to become a witness to her own life. In short, definitely, the changing gender dynamic will affect the practice of medicine in Canada.

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The lover marguerite duras analysis

the lover marguerite duras analysis

But despite her being unsuccessful in establishing herself as masculine and in the end failing to replace the father figure in the family, she temporarily borrows the support the family needs through engagement with the Chinese man and his father, establishing the father figure as the support the family needs, to a certain success as the family is finally able to return to France. He is also the lover Tatiana, who is the only eye witness to Lol V. Depending on the study guide provider SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc. The affair scandalizes society but is pursued with reckless abandon for about eighteen months. To explain away his wealth, the young man reveals that he is the heir to a great fortune. With her books, the adult looks back on the skinny teenager who was little more than an economic bargaining chip.

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