Narration Features in the Novel “The Lover” by M. Duras

Abstract

The article researches the alternation of the types of narrative from the first and third person in the autobiographical novel “The Lover” by M.Duras. Taking into account various effects associated with the author’s refusal of the autobiographical text from using the pronoun “I” in relation to himself, we demonstrate various semantic nuances of the novel by M. Duras. The study shows that the narration in the third person is connected with the visual reconstruction of the author’s portrait. In addition, it is a means of psychological exclusion. The author avoids direct self-identification with the character of the novel at the time of describing the key experiences, this accentuates the contradictory feelings, testifies to the unknowability of the past “I” and the impossibility of reconstructing personal history. In addition, the distance established by refusing the pronoun “I” makes selfknowledge dialogical: the author shows points of view reflecting her own image. The simultaneous use in the novel of the pronouns “je” and “elle” creates in the text a contradiction, pushing the boundaries of the “I”. The personal experience of the author turns out to be correlated with the experience of “other”, including the potential reader of the text.

Keywords

• Duras
• “The Lover”
• autofication
• narrative strategy
• selfportrait
• trauma
• multiple “I”