The War (Marguerite Duras)

Résumé du document

Marguerite Duras was born near Saigon in Indochina in 1914. Her parents went to the French colony as teachers. She left Indonesia in 1932 to study political science and law in Paris. His childhood in Indonesia had a great impact on Duras and brought unity to her work. As she was living in Paris when the Second World War broke out, she faced up the occupation of France by the German army. She became a Resistant in 1943 after she met Francois Mitterrand. Her husband, who was also a Resistant, was sent to a concentration camp. The story of her book, "The War", takes place at the end of the war and the beginning of the liberation. Actually, it is a journal she wrote during the wait of her husband's return. Marguerite Duras told us that she could not remember when she wrote it. She pretended to have lost it and to have found it again in her secondary house. We do not know if it is true, if she really lost her journal of if she wrote it later. But the story in the book is true and that is the main interest. It was published in 1985. "The war" is very interesting mainly because it is a testimony. It is also very well written. In reading this book we can feel a great emotion.

Extraits

[...] It is also very well written. In reading this book we can feel a great emotion. It tells the story of one of the most painful episode in her life, the war and the wait for her husband. That's why the original title of the book was pain”. Her book explores the dilemmas faced by the French society in the context of a civil war during the Second World War and the occupation. We can wonder what these dilemmas were, what the characteristics of this civil war were. [...]

[...] In these conditions the liberation was followed by confusion. The collaborators, denunciators, women who had a relationship with German soldiers were hunted. Many of them were sent to jail or even killed. It was the beginning of the purge. It is difficult to evaluate the number of people killed during this purge, the most reliable study led by Peter Novick (L'épuration française 1944-1949, Paris, 1985) argues that 20000 to 25000 people were killed. It reveals it was a real civil war. Parallel trials were organized by Resistants. [...]

[...] Moreover many people denunciated others but it was sometimes just done to legitimate their own innocence. The attitude of Duras reveals the duality of the spurge: there was coexistence of a summary justice and a official one. One condemned Rabier, the other Ter. Both were part of this civil war. The novel of Marguerite Duras explores one of the most painful pages of the French history. The civil war in France had different aspects: the deportation, the struggle between Resistants and collaborators, and the spurge. [...]

[...] Maintenant le rythme des questions et celui des coups est le même, vertigineux, mais égal Ses yeux ensanglantés sont grands ouverts Duras was insensitive to the suffering of this bloody man. Duras had a ambiguous attitude. On the one hand she wanted to revenge at all cost, she participated in torturing and in this kind of popular, spontaneous justice. And on the other hand she went to the trial of Mr Rabier to tell that he saved Jewish children. Likewise she had feelings for a member of the Milice, Ter. She seemed to do not care of the destiny of this man. [...]

[...] The War (Marguerite Duras) Marguerite Duras was born near Saigon in Indochina in 1914. Her parents went to the French colony as teachers. She left Indonesia in 1932 to study political science and law in Paris. His childhood in Indonesia had a great impact on Duras and brought unity to her work. She died in 1996 in Paris. As she was living in Paris when the Second World War broke out, she faced up the occupation of France by the German army. [...]