Fictionalising Trauma: The Aesthetics of Marguerite Duras's India Cycle

Research output: Book/ReportBookScientificpeer-review

Abstract

With Marguerite Duras being the most disputed French artist after World War II, symbolising trauma represents the most problematic crux of contemporary trauma research. This book brings together these troublesome issues by way of integrating Duras's aesthetics and the challenge of working through major historical trauma. Starting from the concept of an embodied mind as developed in current social neuroscience, the study illuminates the stylistic devices of the famous India Cycle that arose from Duras's relentless struggle with the trauma of French colonialism. It reveals how converting trauma into fiction can become a powerful emotional atrategy for surviving traumatic events, which may provoke necessary change in our cultural memory through collective sharing.
Translated title of the contributionTrauman fiktionalisointi: Marguerite Durasin Intia-sarjan estetiikka
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationFrankfurt am Main
PublisherPeter Lang
Number of pages310
ISBN (Print)978-3-631-60981-1
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-653-00731-2
Publication statusPublished - 2011
MoE publication typeC1 Scientific book

Bibliographical note

The book is a revised and edited version of the doctoral thesis on Marguerite Duras, Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki, 2009

Fields of Science

  • 6122 Literature studies
  • French modernist literature
  • Trauma Fiction
  • postcolonial Studies
  • French avantgarde film
  • Cognitive literary theory
  • historical trauma
  • working through
  • cyclicity
  • cultural memory

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