"Duras: La Pute de la Côte normande"
IntroductionWhore from the Normandy Coast: it was Duras who gave herself this designation in a short text of this name, published in 1986. This hypercriticism examines Duras' multiple textual and mediated personae to show how her fictionalized construction of an autobiographical identity -- in her books -- was highly dependant upon expected responses from a reading public accustomed to the author's interventions on television, radio, and in the printed press.In the web pages that follow, I draw upon the author's extensive use of public appearances to show how she used various extratextual media, strongly influencing the autobiographical reading of her fictions. The hypertext composition includes cross-referenced links to other sections of this study as well as links to Internet resources elsewhere. In this format, my readers will not be required to follow a "straight" narration, whether that of Duras or my own. This is necessarily an open-ended study, fragmenting the Durassian identity with selected links, from the campy to the whorish, from public personae and her appearances in glossy tabloids to the textual characters who were frequently deemed by the writer to be a representation of herself. |  Diams Duras © 1996 Eclectic Iconoclast
My contribution to the virtual conference is in English; most of the others are in French. Dans le contexte présent, la saveur durassienne ne pourra être entièrement transmise sans passer par la langue d'origine. C.Q.F.D. Forcément. |
