I found this novel to be a disturbing yet consuming read. Like you want to look away but can’t stop staring. The exploration of autonomy in the relationship between the young girl and the wealthy man challenges our instant victimization of the girl. Sh…
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with lover, male gaze
Hi everyone! I enjoyed reading Marguerite Duras’s autobiography The Lover but was shocked and skeptical. This story starts when her whole family is together, but then her father dies, leaving her family without any incoming income, so they go to …
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with autobiography, Degrading, experience, Fantasizing, feelings, lover, saigon
Hi everyone! I enjoyed reading Marguerite Duras’s autobiography The Lover but was shocked and skeptical. This story starts when her whole family is together, but then her father dies, leaving her family without any incoming income, so they go to …
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with autobiography, Degrading, experience, Fantasizing, feelings, lover, saigon
Jon actually approached me at the start of the last class as I was reading this book. He asked me how I felt about it and honestly I did not have an answer for him. I kept flip flopping between who genuinely was the problem in this book and I think that’s what Duras wanted. …
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with addiction, class, coming of age, family, family dynamics, gender, girlhood, I hate men, pedophile, poverty, race, sexuality, youth
“Everything flows towards the Pacific, no time for anything to sink, all is swept along by the deep and head-long storm of the inner current, suspended on the surface of the river’s strength” (Duras 22) To fully understand what is happening in this novel, one must observe the disturbing content embedded. The Lover is a […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with authenticity, coming of age, desire, Forbidden, identity, love, memory, taboo, war
“The Lover” left me in a state of perplexity long after I had finished reading the novel not because of its plot, but because of its power dynamics between Duras and her lover, the Chinese man. I find the title “The Lover” intriguing because it seems to me that Duras refuses to be identified as […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with class, gender, memories, narration, race
In this novel, I encountered a similarly intense sensation as with “Combray,” though it left me somewhat puzzled. It doesn’t follow a linear narrative; instead, it intertwines various times and spaces. For instance, in the first forty pages or so, it doesn’t progress the plot but delves into the scenery along the Mekong River. It […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with class, contrast, love, Relationship, women
Marguerite Duras’ novel, “The Lover,” is a unique literature that explores the themes of love, family, and colonialism. At first, I was confused about the story’s setting as there seemed to be a diverse array of ethnicities and there were some city names (such as Mekong, Cholon, and Saigon) that I had never heard of […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with age, family, love, memory, poverty, race, relationships, social class
I was mentally preparing myself to experience extreme discomfort while reading “The Lover”, but I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought I would be. Of course, we shouldn’t dismiss the fact that this relationship was illegal, involving a minor, and disturbing at some parts, like when the girl is described as “his own child [that] […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with age, love, memory, race, relationships