Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Lover

In our group discussion in class we talked about how Duras' The Lover illustrates or exudes the "feminine style". I think that one of the main thoughts that really struck me was the idea of the fragmentation of this novel and the idea of emotions. 

Women are stereotyped and maybe for a reason to be more "emotional" creatures. I think that this style of writing, with the fragments, lets the reader travel emotion to emotion. There is no build up or climatic climb towards one emotion. Duras goes from one emotion to the next, or one memory to the next. The non-linear narrative keeps the reader and the "emotions" of the narrator on their toes. 

I think that unlike other novels, where suspense, surroundings, characters, and other techniques are utilized to keep the reader entertained, emotions are key to Duras' stylistic writing. These emotions which are used to describe certain instances, when no emotion is needed, and to subtly imply certain family dynamics, etc. power the novel and the "female style" of writing. (If that can be defined). 

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, I feel like her writing style is trying too hard to emulate the stereotypical thought process of women. I agree that emotion is the main absorptive factor in the novel, but its strange because it doesn't really create an emotional connection with the reader but almost impersonalizes it so the reader can create his/her own emotional story. Hmm, maybe that doesn't make sense, but her style is really different and as much as it annoys me, it is SO important to the story!

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