Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1986

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Hokenson, Jan W.

Abstract

The relationship between the mother and the child in Duras is most fully developed in the novels La Vie Tranquille (1944), Un Barrage contre le Pacifique (1950), Les Petits Chevaux de Tarquinia (1953), Moderato cantabile (1958), and L' Amant (1984). The relationship is intense, initially joyful but ultimately alienated. It dramatizes the feminine needs of the mother and the filial needs of the child, always in conflict. It weakens, as the mother undergoes personal trials, and, as the child grows older, love turns to hate and despair. This study of the novels reveals a consistent structure: the mother-child relationship in Duras is repeatedly depicted as an enslaving experience, comparable in its passionate development to a foredoomed love affair.

Extent

52 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1986.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT14292

Format

pdf

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