Qianjun Peng (CAS 2021), pursuing honors in French; research supported by the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund
Asian Images in Marguerite Duras’ novels
In this project, I intend to analyze the Asian images in two of Marguerite Duras’ autobiographical novels: Un barrage contre le Pacifique and L’Amant. I intend to show that those images are the carrier of inner emotions, and that by rearranging those images, Duras showed two versions of the same memory. By finding the differences and similarities between these two novels, I want to show that this process of memory-editing is Duras’ struggle of fighting against an ongoing childhood trauma, caused by her dysfunctional mother, her absent father, and her ambivalent identity as a poor, female colonist in French Indochina. What’s more, I will reevaluate the value of Duras’ novels as a Francophone-Vietnamese narration: Different from the stereotypical Asia created by colonial literature, Duras’ Asia is highly personal, without any collective imagination. That is to say, it is a real Asia made up of tears and blood.