FRENCH 329 COLETTE / DURAS: "A PLEASURE UNTO DEATH"
Two prolific authors whose works embrace the span of women's writing in the twentieth century, and who correspondingly illustrate the essential features of modern expression by women. Attention to the phases of a woman's life, sexuality, the figure of the mother, exoticism and race, and the relation between fiction and autobiography.
This course will treat the best works of two prolific authors who embrace the span of women's writing in the twentieth century, and who correspondingly illustrate the essential features of modern expression in fiction by women. Because of the length of their careers, each depicts the range of a woman's life, from childhood and adolescence to maturity and old age. Both of them explore and unveil the transformations of a woman’s body, its appetites, its strengths and weaknesses. In addition the character of the mother haunts both their works- the mother’s image deceitfully appearing to be positive in Colette, uncontrolled and destructive in Duras is nonetheless always an inspiring and rousing force in the production of writing. Along the same lines, we will pursue the elusive figure of the father and its role on the way men are portrayed in both bodies of work. Finally, Duras and Colette’s relentless yearning for the vanished innocence of childhood will emerge as well in our study.
Although these perennial issues are prominent in both authors, there are many differences between Colette, the woman who began early in the century by writing under her husband's name, and the late twentieth century writer Duras. These include, for Duras, the availability of the medium of film, her best-seller status, the seductive presence of exoticism and race, challenging novelistic techniques. Nonetheless, some of these features are already visible in Colette. We will highlight in particular the movement from conventional forms to the creation of texts that deviate from the novelistic norm. Close attention will be given to narrative tactics, fragmentation of character and story, the relation between fiction and autobiography - indeed to all the features that make the writing of Colette and Duras powerful and haunting.
Selective reading list: (to be modified in view of work already done by students)
La Vagabonde
L’Entrave
La Maison de Claudine (selection of short stories)
La Chatte
La Naissance du jour (excerpts)
DURAS:
Moderato cantabile ou Detruire dit-elle
Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein
Le Vice-Consul
L'Amant
Ecrire (excerpts)
Several one page assignments.
One final paper. Interested students will be encouraged to work on a final project under the close supervision of the instructor.