Le périple erratique de la mendiante durassienne
The Erratic Journey of the Durassian Beggar

Summary/Abstract: Marguerite Duras focuses on a rejected individual on the margins of society. Her literary characters oppose being perceived as devoid of autonomy, contesting the fixed model of a submissive and passive woman. On the contrary, they reject the social order and the traditional system of values, claiming the right to freedom and thus demonstrating transgressive female behaviour. Duras’ heroine, a mysterious, crazy person who is looking for love and is aware of her otherness and alienation, appears as a kind of femme fatale or a witch. This image of a “different” woman – a disturbing, unhappy, lost, borderline person experiencing a specific crisis – is best illustrated by a beggar. She identifies, par excellence, with the wandering to the lands of perdition and its various readings. Her journey is, at the same time, a sign of dereliction, an attempt at liberation and a quest for identity.

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