The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras

Author(s): Julia Kristeva and Katharine A. Jensen

Source: PMLA, Vol. 102, No. 2 (Mar., 1987), pp. 138-152
Published by: Modern Language Association
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 JULIA KRISTEVA

The PainofSorrowintheModernWorld:
(D,
Cf)

-11

Duras*
The Worksof Marguerite
m

CL)

Painis oneofthemostimportant inmylife.

things "maladyofdeath,"to useMarguerite Duras'sterm,
La douleur constitutes our mosthiddeninnerrecesses.If the
passion fordeath governsthe militaryand eco-
I tellhimthatwhenI wasa child,mymother's
unhappi- nomicdomainsas wellas socialandpoliticalbonds,
nesstooktheplaceofdreams. TheLover thispassion now evenappearsto governtheonce
noblerealmofthemind.Indeed,a monumental cri-

W
WhiteRhetoricof theApocalypse
sis in thoughtand word, a crisisin representation,
has occurred.Its analoguescan be foundin previ-
x worlds,
tE, THE SO-CALLED civilized
ous centuries (thedeclineoftheRomanEmpireand
know that we are mortal, as Valery
theriseof Christianity, thedevastating periodsof
declaredafterWorldWar i, but now, and its
plague or war during the Middle Ages),
evenmore,we knowthatwe can cause our own of economic,
be
causes can sought in the collapse
death.Auschwitzand Hiroshimarevealedthatthe thepower
political,and legalstructures. Moreover,
of destructive both
forces, outside and within the
individualand society, has never appeared as incon-
testableand irrevocableas it does today.The de-
struction of nature,of lifeand economicresources,
is coupledwithan outbreak,or simplya morepa-
tentmanifestation, ofthedisorders thatpsychiatry
has subtlydiagnosed:psychosis, depression, mania,
borderline disorders,falsepersonalities, so on.
and
As horrible as the political and military
cataclysmshave been, and as muchas theydefy
comprehensionby their monstrousviolence-
concentration campsortheatomicbomb-the vio-
lentlyintensedeflagrationof psychicidentityre-
mainsequallydifficult to grasp.Valerywasalready
*Translator'snote.Thistextis a chapterfromtheauthor'sSoleil
noir.Meilancolieetdeipression(Paris:Gallimard,forthcoming),
entitled"La maladie de la douleur: Duras." The phrase "la
maladiede la douleur"combinesthetitlesoftwoDuras novels,
La maladiede la mortand La douleur,highlighting thethemes
of maladie,mort,and douleurthatthearticleexplores.The En-
glishtitletriesto capturetwo of themultivalent meaningsof
douleur.Throughout thetranslation,dependingon thecontext,
Duras
Marguerite I have privilegedthetermspain, sorrow,or sadnessto render
a)
douleur.Wheretranslations of quotedmaterialare mine,I in-
E
m
dicate by "KAJ's trans."; "my italics," however,designates
ID
Kristeva'semphasis.I should like to expressmygratitudeto
Domna C. Stantonand MargaretWallerfortheirmeticulous
Duras
Marguerite editing.

138

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 JuliaKristeva
awareof thisphenomenonwhenhe comparedthe
disasterof themind(whichfollowedWorldWarI
butwhich,earlierstill,issuedfromthenihilismof
"thedeathof God") to whatthephysicistobserves
inan ovenbrought tothepointofincandescence: ifthe
eyecouldsurvive,itwouldseenothing. Therewouldbe
oflightlefttomarkoffpointsin
nounequalintensities
space.Thistremendouscontainedenergy wouldresult in
inimperceptible
invisibility, Equivalence
equivalence. of
butdisorder
thisorderis nothing ina perfectstate.
(27; modifiedtrans.;myitalics)
The stakesof literature and artare,thus,to be
playedout in thisinvisiblecrisisof identity, be it
personal,moral,religious,or political.At once re-
ligiousand political,thiscrisisfindsitsmostradi-
cal expression inthecrisisofmeaning.The problem
of namingleads no longerto the"musicin letters"
(Mallarme and Joycewerethe believersand aes-
thetesof narration)but to illogicalityand silence.
Afterthe ratherplayfulyetalwayspoliticallyen-
venture,therealityof WorldWar
gaged surrealist
ii brutalizedconsciousnessby the explosion of
deathand madnessthatno dam,ideologicalor aes-
thetic,could contain any longer.That pressure
foundits intimateand inevitablerepercussionin
psychicpain. An inescapable urgency,this pain
nonethelesshas remained,in a sensethatI wantto
explore,invisible,unrepresentable.
If we can stillspeak of "nothing"in tryingto
capturetheintricate meanderings of pain and psy-
chicdeath,do we stillconfrontnothingin theface
of gas chambers,theatomicbomb,or thegulag?
The issue is neitherthe spectacularexplosionof
deathin theuniverseof WorldWarii northedis-
solution of conscious identityand rationalbe-
havior, resultingin insane manifestationsof
psychosis,whichareoftenspectacularas well.For
thesemonstrousand painfulspectaclesdisturbour
mechanisms of perception Our
and representation.
symbolicmodesare emptied,petrified, nearlyan-
nihilated,as iftheywereoverwhelmed or destroyed
byan all too powerfulforce.Attheedgeof silence,
thewordnothingemerges, a prudishdefensein the
faceof suchincommensurable, internaland exter-
nal, disorder.Never has a cataclysmbeen so
apocalypticallyexorbitant. Neverhas itsrepresen-
tationbeenrelegatedto suchinadequatesymbolic
modes.
Certainreligiouscurrentshavemaintainedthat
silencealone is appropriateto such horror,that
deathmustbe withdrawn fromthelivingwordand
onlyevokedobliquelyin thegaps and thenot-said
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139
of a concernborderingon contrition.In thisper-
spective,a fascination,not to say flirtation,with
Judaismhas resulted, exposingtheguiltof intellec-
tualsregarding theirgeneration'santi-Semitism and
collaborationduringtheearlyyearsof thewar.A
new rhetoricof the apocalypse-etymologically,
apocalypso means de-monstration, a visual un-
covering(dei-couvrement), as opposed to aletheia,
the philosophical unveilingof truth-became
necessaryto bringthe vision of this monstrous
nothing,thisblindingand silencingmonstrosity,
intobeing.Thatnewapocalypticrhetoric has been
realizedintwoextremes, whichseemtobe opposites
but whichoftencomplementeach other:thepro-
fusionof imagesand thewithholding of theword.
On theone hand,theartof theimageexcelsin the
crudeexposureof monstrosity. Whatever itsrefine-
ments, film remains the supreme art of the
apocalyptic,suchis theimage'spowerto makeus
treadin fear,as Augustineperceived("Although
manis disquietedinvain,yethe walksinan image"
[418]).On theotherhand,verbaland pictorialart
has becomethe"anxiousand infinite searchforits
source" (Blanchot289). FromHeideggerto Blan-
chot,includingHolderlin,Mallarme,and thesur-
realists,' the poet-clearly marginalized by
politicaldominationin themodernworld-turns
back towardhis or her properhome in language
and displaysitsresources ratherthannaivelyattack
therepresentation ofan externalobject.In thispro-
cess,melancholy becomesthesecretmainspring of
a newrhetoric, whichnowfollowsthemalaise, this
ill-being,stepbystep,almostclinically,withoutever
overcoming it.
In suchan image/word dichotomy, filmdisplays
thecrudenessof horroror theexternalpatternsof
pleasure,whereasliteratureturnsinwardand with-
drawsfromtheworldintothefurrowof thecrisis
in thought.Turnedinwardin its formalismand,
thereby,made more lucid than the enthusiastic
"commitment" and thelibertarianadolescenteroti-
cismof existentialism,postwarmodernliterature
has embarkednonethelesson an arduouspath.Its
questfortheinvisible,whichis perhapsmotivated
bya metaphysical ambitionto remainfaithfultothe
to thepointof ultimateverbalex-
horror'sintensity
actitude,becomesimperceptible and progressively
asocial, antidemonstrative,but also uninteresting
becauseantispectacular.Media arton theone hand,
thenouveauromanon theotherillustrate thesetwo
extremes.
140 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
An Aestheticof Awkwardness
The experiment thatMarguerite Durasrepresents
seemsto be a confrontation withthe"nothing"of
Valeryratherthana "workpointingtowarditsori-
gin,"as Blanchotwouldhaveit.This is the"noth-
ing" imposedon a troubledconsciousnessbythe
horrorofWorldWarII and,independent ofthehor-
rorbutparalleltoit,bytheindividual's psychicmal-
aise due to hidden biological, familial, and
interpersonal calamities.Duras's writingis not a
self-analysis thatlooks foritssourcesin the "mu-
sic in letters"or in theundoingof narrativelogic.
Ifthereis an exploration of form,itis subordinated
to the confrontationwith the silence of horror
withintheselfand in theworld.Such a confronta-
tion leads to an aestheticof awkwardnesson the
one hand and to a noncatharticliterature on the
other.How is thetruthof pain to be spokenwhen
theavailablerhetoricof literature and eventhatof
everyday speechsomehowalwaysseemfestive? It is
onlybysubverting thisfestiverhetoric,distortingit,
makingitgrate,rendering itawkwardand clumsy.
To be sure,thereis a certaincharm in Duras's
drawn-outsentences,devoidof sonorousgrace,in
whichverbsseem to forgetsubjects- "Her ele-
gance,bothwhenshe movedand whenshe was in
repose,said Tatiana,was upsetting"(Ravishing5;
modified trans.)-or which turn breathlessly,
brusquely,onto objects or adjectival comple-
ments "Then,althoughshestillremaineduncom-
municative, shebeganto ask to eat,thewindowto
be opened, sleep" (Ravishing15; KAJ's trans.).
Oftenone is jolted bya last-minute additionthat
seemscrammedintoan unexpecting clausebutthat
gives the clause its meaning-surprise: "She
arousedinhimhisspecialpenchantforyounggirls,
girlsnotcompletely grownintoadults,forpensive,
impertinent, inarticulateyounggirls"(Ravishing
20) or "Their unionis constructedupon indiffer-
ence,in a waywhichis generaland whichtheyap-
prehendmomentbymoment,a unionfromwhich
all preferenceis excluded" (Ravishing 51; my
italics).Or elseone findswordsthataresuperlative
or too scholarlyor,on thecontrary, termsthatare
banal and overusedand thatconveya rigid,artifi-
cial,unhealthy grandiloquence: "I don'tknow.The
onlythingI knowanything about is theimmobil-
ityof life.Therefore, whenthisimmobility is de-
stroyed,I knowit" (Ravishing120; myitalics)or
"When youcried,itwas foryourselfonlyand not
fortheadmirableimpossibility ofjoiningheracross
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thedifference thatseparatesyou" (Maladie 12;my
italics;KAJ's trans.).
Hersis notspokendiscoursebutspeechthathas
beenoverdonebecauseundone,inthewaya woman
is undressedor un-made-up,notthroughcareless-
nessbutbecauseofsomeillnessthatis incurableyet
fullof a captivatingand defiantpleasure.In spite
or perhapsbecause of thischaracteristic, Duras's
distorted,artificial
speechsoundsodd, unexpected,
and,aboveall, painful.An uneasyseductiondraws
you to thefailuresof thecharactersor thefemale
narrator,to this nothing,the unsignifiableof a
maladythatlackstragicparoxysm or beauty,a pain
thathas nothingleftbutitstension.In thatsense,
thestylisticawkwardness in Duras is thediscourse
of bluntedpain.
Filmcompensatesforthefailureof thisexagger-
atedlysilentorpreciousspeechthatis stretched taut
as a rope over suffering. Recourseto theatrical
representation, butespeciallyto thefilmicimage,
necessarily leadsto an uncontrollable proliferation
of associations,a wealthorpoverty ofmeaningand
emotion,dependingon theviewer.Whileitis true
thattheimagesdo not correcttheverbalstylistic
awkwardness, theynonethelessdrownit in thein-
expressible: "nothing"becomesundecidableand si-
lenceis suggestive.A collectiveart,evenwhenitis
underthe screenwriter's control,filmnecessarily
adds to the meagerdirectionsof an authorwho
continuallyharborsan unhealthysecretwithina
textualplotthatis evermoreelusive.Filmadds the
inherently spectacularvolumesand combinations
of bodies, gestures,actors' voices, sets, lights,
producers,of all those professionsthat involve
showing.Duras uses filmto consumeitsspectacu-
lar force,submerging it in ellipticalwordsand al-
lusivesoundsuntiltheinvisiblebecomesdazzling.
Butshealso usesfilmforitssurplusof fascination,
whichcompensatesfortheverbalshrinkage. Byin-
creasingthe seductivepower of the Durassian
characters,theirinvisible maladybecomeslesscon-
tagious on screenbecause it is acted out: filmed
depressionalwaysseemsa strangeartifice.
Accordingly, Duras'stextsshouldnotbe givento
fragilereaders,male or female. Instead, such
readersshould see her filmsor plays,wherethe
same maladyof pain is subdued,envelopedin a
dreamycharmthatboth softensit and makes it
moreartificial, invented, in short,conventional.
By
contrast,herbooksbringus closeto madness.They
do notshowit fromafar,nordo theyobserveand
 JuliaKristeva
analyzeitso thatthesuffering,at a distance,offers
thehopethatone day,somehowor other,therewill
be a solution.On thecontrary, Duras's textstame
themaladyof deathto becomeone withit,partof
it everystep of the way,no distance,no escape.
Thereis no purificationat theend of thesenovels
laden withdisease, no heightenedsense of well-
being,no promiseof a beyond,not eventhe en-
chantingbeautyof styleor ironythatwould pro-
vide a bonus of pleasurebeyondtheill revealed.
WithoutCatharsis
With neithercure nor God, withoutvalue or
beautyotherthanthemaladyitself,seized at the
siteof itsessentialfissure,Duras's artis perhapsas
minimally catharticas artcan be. Undoubtedly, this
is becauseitstemsmorefromsorceryand bewitch-
mentthanfromthegraceand forgiveness tradition-
allyassociatedwithartisticgenius.A somberand
yetlistlesslydelicatecomplicity withthemaladyof
painand deathemanatesfromDurassiantexts.This
complicityleads us to x-rayour madness,to the
dangerousbrinkswheretheunityof meaning,per-
son, and lifefallsapart. "Mysteryin fulllight"is
how BarresdescribedClaude Lorrain'spaintings;
withDuras, thereis madnessin fulllight:"I went
mad in fullpossessionof mysenses"(Lover86). We
are presentat thenothingof meaningand feeling,
whichlucidityfollowsintoextinction.We witness
clearlyour owndistressneutralized, withno sense
of tragedyor enthusiasm,in the frigidinsig-
nificanceof a psychicnumbing,whichis themini-
mal but also the ultimate sign of pain and
ravishment.
ClariceLispector(1924-77)also offersa revela-
tionof suffering and deathwithouttheaestheticof
forgiveness. Her Apple in theDark (Ma!d no Es-
curo) seems to be writtenin opposition to
Dostoevsky.Lispector's hero, like Raskolnikov,
murdersa woman(but his victimis his own wife)
and meetstwo otherwomen who representthe
spiritualand thecarnal. Whiletheyseparatehim
fromthemurder-as Sonia does fortheconvictin
Crimeand Punishment-they neithersavenorpar-
don him;indeed,theyhandhimoverto thepolice.
This ending,however, is neitherthereverseof par-
don nor a punishment.The inescapablecalm of
destinydescendson theprotagonists and endsthe
novelwithan implacable,possiblyfeminine, gen-
tlenessthatrecallsDuras's disabusedtone,theun-
forgivingmirrorof the subject's distress. If
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141
Lispector'suniverse,in contrastto Dostoevsky's,
has no forgiveness,it nonethelesscontainsa com-
plicityamong protagonists.Theirties persistbe-
yond theirseparationand weave a welcoming,
invisibleenvironmentonce the novel is done.2
Moreover,beyondthesinisterunveilingof ill,the
humorthatrunsthroughLispector'sferocioussto-
rieshas a purifyingvalueand servesto distancethe
readerfromthecrisis.
Thereis nothinglikethisin Duras. Death and
pain arethetext'sspiderweb. Complicitousreaders
who succumbto itscharmmustbeware:theymay
remainin the web forgood. The "crisisin litera-
ture"thatValery,Caillois,and Blanchotdescribe
attainsa kindof apotheosisin Duras. Literature is
neitherself-criticismnorcriticism nora generalized
ambivalence,astutelyblendingman and woman,
realand imaginary, trueand falseinthedisabused
celebrationof a semblancethatdanceson thevol-
cano of an impossibleobject or a lost time. In
Duras,thecrisisleaveswriting just shortof a com-
pletedistortionof meaningand confinesit to the
layingbareof malady.Noncathartic, thisliterature
encounters, recognizes,butalso propagatestheill
thatmobilizesit. Althoughclose to beingtheop-
positeof clinicaldiscourse,itenjoysthesecondary
advantagesof themalady,cultivating and taming
butneverexhausting it.In viewof suchfaithfulness
to this malaise, one can understandhow Duras
foundalternatives in film'sneoromantic conveying
of messages and in ideological or metaphysical
meditations. BetweenDestroy,She Said (1969)and
La maladiede la mort(1982),in whichthetheme
of loveand deathfindsitsultimatecondensation,
thereare thirteen yearsof films,plays,and expla-
nations.3
In The Lover (1984) eroticexoticismassiststhe
beingsand wordsexhaustedbya tacitdeath.The
noveldisplaysthepassionthatis constantinDuras's
work-painfuland murderous, self-conscious and
restrained."She couldsayshedoesn'tlovehim.She
says nothing.Suddenly,all at once, she knows,
knowsthathe doesn'tunderstand her,thathe never
will,thathelacksthepowerto understand suchper-
verseness"(Lover37). At thesametime,thenovel
containssocialand geographic realism,a journalis-
ticaccountof colonialshabbinessand themalaise
of theOccupation,and a naturalistic renderingof
maternalfailureand hatred.All thispervadesthe
slickand unhealthypleasureof thegirlprostitute
who yieldsto thetearfulsensualityof a richChi-
neseman sadly,and yetwiththeperseverance of a
142 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
professionalnarrator.Whileremainingan impos-
sibledream,feminine jouissance is anchoredin lo-
cal color and in a historythatare certainlydistant
butthatthethirdworldmassesand therealismof
familialcarnagemakeplausible,strangely closeand
intimate. WithTheLover,painattainsa neoroman-
ticsocial and historicalharmonythatensuredthe
book successin themedia.
Not all of Duras's oeuvrepreviousto TheLover
followsan asceticfaithfulness to madness.Among
themanytextsthatdo,however, I chooseto discuss
those that reveal the culminatingmomentsof
madness.
Hiroshimaof Love
Therecan be no artificeabout Hiroshima,be-
cause ithappened.Therecan be no tragicor paci-
fistartificein thefaceof theatomicexplosion,no
rhetorical beforethemutilation
artifice of feelings:
"All one can do is talk about theimpossibility of
talking about Hiroshima. The knowledge of
Hiroshimabeingstated'aprioribyan exemplary de-
lusionof themind" (Hiroshima 9). The sacrilege
is Hiroshimaitself,the deathlyeventand not its
repercussions. Duras's textproposes"to havedone
withthedescriptionof horrorby horror,forthat
has beendone bytheJapanesethemselves"and to
"make thishorrorriseagain fromitsashes byin-
corporating itina lovethatwillnecessarily be spe-
cial and 'wonderful'" (9). The nuclearexplosion
thusinfiltrates the love itself,and its devastating
violence makes it both impossibleand superbly
erotic,condemnedandmagicallyattractive, as isthe
nurse(EmanuelleRiva) in one of passion'sparox-
ysms.The textand filmbeginnotwiththeexpected
imageof themushroomcloud butwithfragments
of theintertwined bodies of twolovers,who could
also be in thethroesof death:"Insteadwe see mu-
tilatedbodies-the heads, the hips-moving-in
the throesof love or death-and coveredsucces-
sivelywiththeashes,the dew,of atomicdeath-
and thesweatof love fulfilled"(8). Love stronger
thandeath?Perhaps:"Theirpersonalstory,how-
everbriefitmaybe,alwaysdominatesHiroshima"
(10). But perhaps not. For, if He comes from
Hiroshima,She comesfromNevers,where"shewas
mad. Mad withspite" (10). Her firstloverwas a
German;he was killedat theLiberation;herhead
was shaved.A firstlovewas killedby"theultimate
of horrorand stupidity" (12). Butin a certainsense
thehorrorof HiroshimafreesherfromherFrench
tragedy.The use of the atomicweapon seemsto
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provethathorrordoes not existonlyon one side;
it has neithercamp nor party,it ragesabsolutely.
This transcendence of horrorfreesthe womanin
love froma falsesenseof guilt.She can thentake
her "hopeless love" to Hiroshima.Beyondtheir
marriages, whichtheycall happy,theprotagonists'
newlove,despiteitspowerand riveting authentic-
ity,will also be "killed": it harborsa disasteron
bothsides-a Neverson one, a Hiroshimaon the
other.Howeverintenseitmaybe initsunnameable
silence,love is henceforth suspended,pulverized,
atomized.
Forthewoman,toloveis to lovea dead man.The
body of hernewloveris confusedwiththecorpse
of her firstlove,whichshe had coveredwithher
ownbodyfora dayand night,whenshealso tasted
itsblood. Moreover, herpassionis intensified
bythe
desireforthe impossiblethatthe Japaneselover
represents. In spiteof his "international"air and
theWestern-like facethatthescreenplay specifies,
he remainsifnotexoticat leastother,fromanother
world,a beyond,so thathe blendsintotheimage
oftheGerman,belovedand dead inNevers.Butthe
dynamicJapaneseengineer is also markedbydeath
becausehe necessarily carriesthemoralstigmataof
the atomicdeaththattook his countrymen as its
firstvictims.Is thisa loveburdenedbydeathorthe
love of death?Does lovebecome impossibleor is
thisa necrophiliac passion?Is mylovea Hiroshima
or do I loveHiroshimabecauseitspain is myeros?
Hiroshima,mon amour sustainsthis ambiguity,
whichis, perhaps,thepostwarversionof love.Or,
perhaps,thishistoricalversionof love revealsthe
profoundambiguity ofloveuntodeath,thedeathly
halo of all passion.
That he is dead doesn'tkeepherfromdesiringhim.She
wantshimso badlyshe can't bear it anylonger,and he
is dead.An exhausted body,breathing heavily.
Hermouth
is moist.Her pose is thatof a lustfulwoman,immodest
to thepointof vulgarity.Moreimmodestthananywhere
else. Disgusting.She desiresa dead man. (96)
Love serveslifebymakingdyingeasier. (92)
The implosionof loveintodeathand deathinto
love achievesits climacticexpressionin theunen-
durablepain of madness: "TheypretendedI was
dead.. . . I wentmad. Out of spite.I spitin my
mother's face, it seems" (107). This madness,
ravagedand murderous, is nothinglessthanherab-
sorptionofhisdeath:"One mightbelieveherdead,
 JuliaKristeva 143

so completelyhas his death drainedall lifefrom to an absolutionof thecrimein thename of love.

her" (87). The identification of the protagonists, The youngGermanis an enemy,theharshnessof
whichconfusestheirboundaries,theirwords,their theResistancehas itslogic,and nothingis said to
beings,is a permanent figurein Duras. In an effort justifyJapan'ssupportoftheNazis ortheviolence
notto die as he did,and to survivetheirdead love, of the American eleventh-hourcounterattack.
the woman nonethelessbecomes like a dead While the politicalfactsare treatedwithan im-
woman:dissociatedfromothersand fromtime,she plicitlyleftistpolitical conscience(the Japanese
has theeternalanimalgaze of thecat. She is mad, man mustunquestionablyappearleftist),theaes-
"dead ofloveinNevers":"I couldn'tfeeltheslight- theticstakeis stillloveand death.As a result,pub-
estdifference betweenthisdead bodyand mine.All lic events are depicted throughthe prism of
I could findbetweenthisbodyand minewereob- madness.
vious similarities,
do you understand?"(65). Fre-
quent,evenpermanent, theidentification withthe In our time,theonlyeventis humanmadness.
objectof mourning is in factabsoluteand unavoid- Politics,especiallyin its murderousoutbursts,is
able. Bythattoken,mourningbecomesimpossible partof thatmadness.It is not,as it was forHan-
as theheroineis transformed intoa cryptinhabited nah Arendt,thearenawherehumanfreedomun-
by a livingcorpse. folds.The modernworld,theworldof theworld
wars,the thirdworld,the subterranean worldof
Privateand Public deaththatmovesus do nothavethepolicedsplen-
dor of theGreekcity.The modernpoliticalrealm
All of MargueriteDuras's oeuvremaybe found is massively, and in a totalitarianway,social,level-
in thetextofHiroshima,monamour(1960),whose ing,killing.Thusmadnessrepresents a spaceofan-
action takesplace in 1957,twelveyearsafterthe tisocial, apolitical, and, paradoxically, free
atomic explosion. Hiroshima has everything: individuation.In the face of madness,political
suffering, death,love,and theirexplosivemerging events,howeverexorbitantand monstrous-the
inthemad melancholyof a woman.But,aboveall, Nazi invasion,theatomicexplosion-are internal-
what Hiroshimacontainsis the union of socio- ized and measuredonlybythehumanpaintheyin-
historicalrealism,whichfirstappearsin The Sea duce. In the extreme,moral pain creates no
Wall(1950)and reappearsin TheLover(1984),and hierarchy betweena Frenchwomanin lovewhose
theX rayof depressiondefinedin Moderatocan- head is shavedand a Japanesewomanburnedby
tabile(1958),whichwasto becomethepreferred ter- atomicfallout.Forthisethicand aestheticfocused
rain,indeedtheexclusiverealmof theintimist texts on pain,the"trivial"privaterealmattainsa som-
to come. If historymovesto thebackgroundand ber dignitythatreducesthe importof the public
eventually disappears in Duras's works, in worldevenas itattributes to historythegrandiose
Hiroshimaitis bothcause and setting.Thisdrama responsibility of triggering the malady of death.
of love and madnessoccursindependently of the Public life, then, becomes profoundlyunreal,
politicaldrama;thepowerofthepassionsurpasses whereasprivatelifeis intensified to thepointthat
thepoliticalevents,however atrocious.Evenimpos- it absorbstherealand invalidatesall otherpreoc-
sible and mad love seems to triumphoverthese cupation.Politicalbynature,thenewworldis un-
events,if one can speak of triumphin relationto real. We experiencethe realityof a new worldof
eroticizedpain or suspendedlove. pain.
Giventheimperativeof thisfundamental mal-
Durassian melancholy,however,also explores aise, diversepoliticalcommitments appear to be
history. Withinthepsychicmicrocosmof thesub- equivalentand revealtheirescapiststrategies and
ject, privatepain absorbs political horror.This treacherousweaknesses:
Frenchwomanin Hiroshimamaybe Stendhalian,
perhapseternal,butshenonetheless existsbecause
Collaborators,theFernandezes were.And I, twoyearsaf-
of the war, the Nazis, and the bomb. And yet,
terthewar,I was a memberof theFrenchCommunist
throughitsintegration in privatelife,politicallife party.The parallelis completeand absolute.The two
loses theautonomythatour consciencereligiously thingsarethesame,thesamepity,thesamecall forhelp,
wantsto reserveforit. At thesame time,thevari- thesame lack of judgment,thesame superstition ifyou
ous partiesin theworldconflictdo not disappear like,thatconsistsinbelieving
ina politicalsolutiontothe
in a globalcondemnation thatwouldbe equivalent personalproblem. (Lover68)

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144 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
At thatjuncture,theexaminationof thepolitical
cause is suspendedand replacedby an exclusive
detailingof therainbowof pain. Weare survivors,
thelivingdead,corpseson suspendedsentence, har-
boringourpersonalHiroshimainthehollowofour
privateworld.
We can imaginean artthatwouldrecognizethe
weightof modernpain and yetdrownitinthecon-
queror'svictories,in metaphysical sarcasmor en-
thusiasm, or even in the tendernessof erotic
pleasure.Is it nottrue,afterall, or above all, that
todaywehavevanquisheddeathmorethaneverbe-
fore,thatlifealwayswinsoutinourexperience, and
thatthedestructive militaryand politicalforcesof
World War ii seem to have been halted? Duras
chooses,or yieldsto,a differentpath:thecomplic-
itous, voluptuous,bewitchingcontemplationof
deathwithinus, of thepermanentwound.
La douleur(1985),a strange,secretjournal kept
duringthewarthatnarrates RobertL.'s return from
Dachau, revealsone of theessentialbiographical
and historicalsourcesof thispain. It is thehuman
struggleagainstdeathin thefaceoftheNazi exter-
mination and the survivor'sstrugglewith his
cadaverousbodytorediscover thevitalforcesoflife.
The narrator,bothwitnessand combatantin this
fightbetweenlifeand death,presents itfromwithin
herlove fortheresurrected dead man:
The strugglewithdeathstartedimmediately. You had to
go at it gently,delicately,tactfully.It closed in on him
fromall sides.Still,therewas a wayyoucould reachhim
eventhoughthe space forcommunicationwasn'tvery
large.But lifewas stillin him,hardlyas bigas a splinter,
yetthatbig. Death roseto attack-temperature 39.5 the
firstday. Then 40. Then 41. At 41, death was out of
breath:theheartvibratedlikethestringof a violin.Still
at 41,butitvibrates. Wethought theheartwouldgiveout.
Steadyat 41. Death strikes withwhiplashes, buttheheart
is deaf. It can't go on, the heartwillgiveout.
(Douleur 57; KAJ's trans.)
The narratoris meticulouslyconcernedwiththe
minute,essentialdetailsof the body's fightwith
death,of death'sfightwiththebody:shestudieshis
"haggardbutsublime"face,hisbones,skin,intes-
tines,eventhe"inhuman"or "human"shit.Atthe
heartofherloveforthisman,whichitselfhas been
dying,shefinds,throughpain and thanksto it,her
passion forthe survivorRobertL., a unique and
thusforeverbelovedbeing.Death revivesthedead
love:
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At thesound of thename,RobertL., I cry.I'm stillcry-
ing.I couldcryall mylife.. . . I cameto knowthisman
RobertL. bestduringhisagony. . . I sawthenand for-
everwhatmadehimhimself alone,and nobodyand noth-
ingelseintheworld.It wasthenthatI couldspeakabout
thespecialgraceof RobertL.
(Douleur 80; KAJ's trans.)
Is pain enamouredof deaththesupremeindivid-
uation?
It was perhapsnecessaryforDurasto experience
thestrangeness of beinguprooted.A childhoodon
theAsian continent, thetensionsofan arduousex-
istencewitha hardbutcourageousmotherwhowas
a schoolteacher,the early encounterwith her
brother's mental illness and with everyone's
misery-thesemayhaveproducedthepersonalsen-
sitivityto pain that allowed her to espouse the
dramaofourtimes(withsuchavidness).Foralmost
all of us,thisdramaplacesthemaladyof deathat
thecenterofpsychicexperience. It involvesa child-
hood wherehope and wherelove,alreadyburned
bythefireof restrained hatred,could onlybecome
apparentundertheoppressiveness of misfortune:
And she thought:"I'll spitin his face." But whenshe
opened the door the spittledriedup in her mouth.It
wasn'tworthwhile.Thiswasjusta misfortune, thisMon-
sieurJo,anothermisfortune likethesea walls,thehorse
thatdied.He wasnota person:he wasonlya misfortune.
(Sea Wall57)
This childhoodofhatredand fearis thesourceand
emblemof a visionof contemporary history:
It's a familyof stone,petrified
so deeplyit'simpenetra-
ble.Everydaywetryto killone another,to kill.Not only
do we nottalkto one another,we don'tevenlook at one
another. . . Because of what's been done to our
mother, so amiable,so trusting,
wehatelife,wehateour-
selves. (Lover 54-55)
My memoryis of a centralfear. (84)
I thinkI can alreadysay,I have a vaguedesireto die.
(103)
I feela sadnessI expectedand whichcomes only
frommyself. (44)
Withthethirstforpain unto madness,Duras re-
vealsthegraceofourmostcontemporary despairs,
those that are most tenacious,most resistantto
faith.
 JuliaKristeva
Womanas Sadness
"How does a womango about things?"asks theVice-
Consul. The Secretaryguffaws....
"I shouldplayon hersadness,"saystheVice-Consul,
"if I got thechance." (Vice-Consul61)
Sadnesscouldbe theessentialmaladyofDuras's
womenif it werenot theirunhealthycore (Anne-
MarieStretter[The Vice-Consul],Lol V. Stein[The
Ravishingof Lol Stein],and Alissa [Destroy,She
Said] arethreethatcome to mind).It is an undra-
matic,faded,unnameablesadness,thenothingthat
bringson quiettearsand ellipticalwordsand that
mergespain and ravishment unobtrusively: "I've
heard that . . . her heaven is tears," says the Vice-
ConsulaboutAnne-MarieStretter. The strangeam-
bassador's wifein Calcutta seemsto carrydeath
buriedwithinherthinand pale body: " 'Death in
the midstof life,' says the Vice-Consul at last,
'deathfollowing butnevercatching up. Is thatit?' "
(139). More than her shatteredloves,she carries
withinher the loss of a musical careerand the
melancholiccharmof herchildhoodVenice.She is
thewalkingmetaphorof a dullblue-greenVenice,
an end-of-the-worldcitythatremainsforothersthe
excitingCityof the Doges. And yet,Anne-Marie
Stretteris theincarnationof thesorrowof every-
woman;sheis "fromDijon, Milan,Brest,Dublin,"
sheis perhapssomewhatEnglish,no,sheis univer-
sal: "What I meanis," she says,"it'stoo simpleto
say that one comes fromVenice,or only from
Venice.It seemsto me thatone also comes from
otherplaceswhereone has stoppedalongtheway"
(86).
Sorrowis hersex,thefocalpointofhereroticism.
Whenshecovertly conveneshercenacleofloversat
theBlue Moon or in hersecrethouse,
Theylook at her.She is thinin herblack housecoat,
hereyesare screwedup. She is no longerbeautiful.
She seemsto be ina stateofwhatcan onlybe described
as unbearablewell-being.
And now,thethinghappensthatCharlesRossett,with-
out knowingit,has been waitingfor.Has it reallyhap-
pened? Yes. There are the tears.They are oozing out
betweenhereyelidsand rollingdownhercheeks,invery
small,glisteningdrops. (156)
Theyboth standthere,lookingat her.Her long eyelids
quiver,butthetearsdo notflow.. . . "I cryforno rea-
son I can explain.It'sas thoughI wereshotthroughwith
grief.Someone has to weep,and I seemto be theone."
No doubtsheis awareofthepresenceofthemenfrom
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145
Calcutta.Sheliesabsolutely
motionless.
If shewereto
move . . . no. She seemsnowto be in thegripof a sor-
rowso oldthatitisimpossible toweepforit.
anylonger
(158)
This sorrow,expressing an impossiblepleasure,
is the agonizingsignof frigidity.Holding back a
passionthatcannotflow,thissorrowis,morepro-
foundly, theprisonof an impossiblemourningfor
an ancientlovemade up whollyof sensationand
autosensation;itis inalienable, and,for
inseparable,
that veryreason, unnameable.This unfulfilled
mourningfortheautosensualpreobjectconstitutes
femininefrigidity. Thus thesorrowattachedto it
containsa stranger, a womanunknownto theone
whoinhabitsthesurface.To thedisaffected narcis-
sism of melancholicmanifestations, sorrowop-
poses and adds a profoundnarcissism,archaic
autosensuality,wounded affects.Indeed, at the
sourceof thissorrow,thereexistsan unassumable
abandonment.Sorrowis revealedby the play of
duplicationwherethebodyrecognizesitselfinthe
imageof anotherso longas thisotheris itsreplica.
"Not-I," or Abandonment
Abandonmentrepresentsthe insurmountable
traumainflicted bythediscovery-which undoubt-
edly occurs early and is thus impossible to
articulate-of theexistenceof a "not-I." In fact,
abandonmentstructures whatremansof a storyin
Duras's texts.4Womanis abandonedbyherlover.
The Frenchwoman'sGermanloverdiesin Nevers.
Michael Richardsonpubliclyleaves Lol V. Stein.
Again Michael Richardson,the impossiblelover,
punctuates a seriesofdisasters
inAnne-MarieStret-
ter'slife.ElisabethAlionelosesherstillbornchild,
and beforethat,the youngdoctorwho lovedher
triesto killhimself whensheshowsherhusbandher
lover'sletter(Destroy,She Said). The manand the
girlinLa maladiede la mortarepossessedof an in-
herentmourningthatturnstheirphysicalpassion
intosomething distant,morbid,alwaysalreadycon-
demned.Finally,thelittleFrenchgirland herChi-
neseloverknowthattheirliaisonis impossibleand
condemnedfromtheoutset;thusthegirlconvinces
herselfnot to love and is not troubledbyherlost
passionexceptwhenshe hearsthedisturbing echo
of a Chopin melodyon the boat takingher to
France.
This sense of inevitableabandonmentthatthe
realseparationor deathoftheloversfinallyreveals
seemsimmanent and almostpredestined.It centers
146 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
on thematernalfigure.The motherof theyoung
Neverswomanwas separatedfromherhusband,or
else (thenarratorhesitates)shewas Jewishand left
fortheunoccupiedzone.And beforethefateful ball
whereMichael Richardsonwill abandon her for
Anne-MarieStretter, Lol V. Steinarrivesaccompa-
nied by her mother,whose elegantand bony sil-
houette, bearing "emblems of some obscure
negationon thepartof nature"(5), prefigures the
elegant,deathlike,and inaccessiblethinnessof the
futurerival.More dramatically, thereis the mad,
pregnant, and gangrenous Buddhistwomanof The
Vice-Consul,who travelsobliviouslyfrom In-
dochinato India and who struggles withdeathbut
primarily withthemotherwhothrewheroutofher
childhoodhome: "Aloud, she speaksa fewwords
of Cambodian: Good morning,Good night.She
used to talk to thechild. To whomis she talking
now? To herold motherin thePlain of TonleSap,
thefountain-head, theinstigatorof all hermisfor-
tunes,herblighteddestiny, herinnocentlove" (50).
The mother'smadnessin TheLoverlooms with
a lugubriousGothicforce;themotheris,in fact,the
archetypeof the mad women who people the
Durassian universe:"I see my motheris clearly
mad.. . . From birth. In the blood. She wasn't ill
withit, forher it was like health . . . " (30). Hatred
locksdaughterand mothertogetherina viseofpas-
sionthatemergesas thesourceofthemysterioussi-
lencethatstreaksthewriting:
.. she oughtto be lockedup, beaten,killed... I thoughshetookeverything
thinkI wroteabout our loveforour mother,butI don't
knowifI wroteabouthowwehatedhertoo.. . . It'sthe
area on whosebrinksilencebegins.Whathappensthere
is silence,theslowtravailof mywholelife.I'm stillthere,
watchingthosepossessedchildren,as farawayfromthe
mystery now as I was then.I've neverwritten,thoughI
thoughtI wrote,neverloved,thoughI thoughtI loved,
neverdone anythingbut waitoutsidetheclosed door.
(23, 25)
Out of fear of maternalmadness,the novelist
eliminatesthemother,separatingfromherwitha
violenceno lessmurderous thanthatofthemother
who beats her prostituted daughter.Destroy,the
daughter-narrator seemsto sayin TheLover,butin
erasingthefigureof themother,sheactuallytakes
her place, substitutingherselfformaternalmad-
ness. She does not killthemotherso muchas ex-
tendherpresenceintothenegativehallucination of
an alwayslovingidentification:
Theresuddenly,close to me,was someonesittingin my
mother'splace who wasn'tmymother. ... thatiden-
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byanyotherhad disappearedand I was
tityirreplaceable
powerlessto makeit come back, makeit startto come
back. Therewas no longeranythingthereto inhabither
image.I wentmad in fullpossessionof mysenses.
(85-86)
Whilethebondto themotheris an antecedent to
sorrow,thetextdoes not designateit as thecause
or origin.Sorrowis self-sufficient. It transcends
cause and effect;it sweepsaside everyentity, the
subjectas wellas theobject.Is sorrowtheultimate
thresholdof our objectlessstate?It defiesdescrip-
tion, but it can be perceivedin sudden breaths,
tears,in theblanksbetweenwords:" 'I am drunk
withthesufferings of India. Aren'tweall, moreor
less?It'simpossibleto talkaboutsuchsuffering un-
less one has made it as mucha partof oneselfas
breathing"'(Vice-Consul124).Massiveand exter-
nal, sorrowis connectedwithseparation.Or,then,
itcan be considereda profound scissionoffeminine
being,experienced as theimpassablevoidof bore-
dom at theverysiteof thesubject'sdivision:
The onlytimesshedid speakwas to sayhowimpossible
itwas forherto expresshowboringand longitwas,how
interminableitwas,tobe Lol Stein.Theyaskedherto try
and pullherselftogether.She didn'tunderstand whyshe
should,shesaid.The difficultysheexperienced in search-
ingfora singlewordseemedinsurmountable. She acted
as thoughshe expectednothingfurther fromlife.
Was shethinking of something,of herself?theyasked
her.She didn'tunderstandthe question. It seemedas
forgranted,and thatthein-
finitewearinessof beingunableto escape fromthestate
she was in was not somethingthathad to be thought
about, thatshe had become a desertinto whichsome
nomad-likefacultyhad propelledher,in theintermina-
blesearchforwhat?Theydidnotknow.Nordidsheoffer
anyanswer. (Ravishing14)
On Ravishment:The Absenceof Pleasure
The Durassian woman does not representall
women.Still,shepossessessometypicalfeatures of
femalesexuality.In thisbeingofuttersadness,one
tendsto see theexhaustionratherthantherepres-
sionoftheeroticdrives.Seizedbytheloveobject-
by the loveror,beforehim,by the unmournable
mother-thedriveis faded,emptiedofitspowerto
createa bond of sexual pleasureor of symbolic
complicity.To be sure,thelost"object" has leftits
tracein unusedaffectsand in a discourseemptied
of meaning,but it is thetraceof an absence,of a
fundamentalunbinding.It can induceravishment
but not pleasure.This lovecan onlybe foundin a
 JuliaKristeva
secretcavewherenothingexistsexceptthehorrible
agony of a girlmerginginto the glowingeyesof
Neverscats.
The disguised ravishmentis in some sense
anerotic.Foritlacksa bond;itis separatedfromthe
otherand turnsinwardtowardthehollowof one's
ownbodyonlyto be disconnectedat theverymo-
mentofjouissanceand to sinkintoa beloveddeath
of self.Mightthisaneroticravishment be,ifnotthe
secret,thenat leastan aspectof femalejouissance?
La maladiede la mortwouldso suggest.In thistext,
themansavorstheopenbodyoftheyoungwoman
likea regaldiscoveryof sexualdifferencethatwould
otherwise be inaccessiblebutthatstillseemsto him
dangerous,engulfing, deathly.He denieshimself
thepleasureof lyingwithinthewetsexof hispart-
nerbyimagining hermurder:"You discoverthatit's
there,withinher, that the malady of death is
fomenting, thatit'sthisfigurespreadout in front
ofyouthatdecreesthemaladyofdeath"(38; KAJ's
trans.).At the same time,she knowsdeath. De-
tachedand indifferent to sex,yetin lovewithlove
and dociletowardpleasure,shelovesthedeathshe
bears withinher.Even more,thiscomplicitywith
death gives her the feelingof being beyondit:
womandoes notsubmitto death,sheinflictsitbe-
cause she is part of it. Whereasthe man has the
maladyof death,she is themaladyof deathmov-
ingeverelsewhere:". . . shelooks at youthrough
thegreenfilter of hereyes.She says:You announce
the reignof death. You can't love deathif it's in-
flictedon you fromtheoutside.You thinkyou're
crying becauseyoucan'tlove.You'recrying because
youcan'tinflictdeath" (48). Deifiedbythenarra-
tor,theinaccessiblewomanmoveselsewhere, bring-
ing death to othersthrougha love that is "an
admirableimpossibility" forherselfand herlover.
The mythification of theinaccessiblefemininein
Duras thencontainsa certaintruthabout the fe-
male experienceof a jouissance of sorrow.More-
over,this no-man's-landof painfulaffectsand
devalorizedwordsthatbrushtheheightsof mystery
does notlack expressiveness. Howeverdead itmay
be, this no-man's-landhas its own language of
duplication.It createsechoes,doubles,replicasthat
expressthe passion or destructionfromwhose
deprivationthewomansuffers. And in hersorrow
she cannotspeak.
Couples and Doubles in Duplication
Whereas
(Re)duplicationis a blockedrepetition.
extendsin time,reduplication
repetition is outside
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147
of time,a reverberation in space,a gameof mirrors
withno perspective, no duration.For a while,a
double can freezetheinstability of thesame,give
ittemporary identity,buteventually itexploresthe
abyssof thesame,probingthoseunsuspectedand
unplumbable depths.The doubleis theunconscious
depthof thesame,thatwhichthreatens it,can en-
gulfit.
Createdbythemirror, reduplication precedesthe
specularidentification characteristic of themirror
stage.It leads back to thelimitsof unstableidenti-
ties,confusedbya drivethatnothingcan defer,ne-
gate,or signify. Thereis an unnameablepowerin
sucha gaze,beyondsight,thefaculty thatfunctions
likea privilegedand unfathomable universein de-
sire:"He was satisfiedjustto gaze at Suzannewith
troubledeyes,to go on gazing,to enhancehisview
withanothersupplementary look,as is usual when
one is devouredwithpassion" (Sea Wall54). Be-
yond or beneath sight, hypnoticpassion sees
doubles.
Anne Desbaresdes and Chauvin in Moderato
cantabile(1958)construct theirlovestoryas an echo
oftheirimaginedtaleofan impassionedcouple,ac-
cordingto whichthewomanwantsherloverto kill
her.Wouldthetwoprotagonists existwithoutthe
reference to theimaginarymasochistic jouissance
of thiscouple? The narrativeis structured to play
out-"moderato cantabile"-another internal
reduplication: betweenmotherand son. This cou-
ple, in whichthewoman'sidentitydrownsin her
love forthe child, marksthe apogee of imaged
reflection.If daughter and mothercan be rivalsand
enemies(The Lover),motherand son inModerato
cantabilerepresent puredevouring love.AnneDes-
baresdes'sson absorbshermuchlikethewineshe
drinks,and evenbeforeitabsorbsher.She accepts
herself-she is indulgentand ravished-only in
him.He is theaxisthatreplacesherunderlying dis-
appointments inloveand thatrevealshermadness.
She would probablybe dead withouthim. With
him,she is in a vertigoof love,of practicaland
pedagogicalconcerns, butalso ofsolitude,eternally
in exilefromselfand others.Like a banal quotid-
ian replicaof thewomanwho wantedto be killed
by her loverat the beginningof the novel,Anne
Desbaresdes,themother, livesherecstaticdeathin
herloveforherson. Whileunveiling themasochis-
tic depthsof desire,thiscomplexfigure(mother-
son/femalelover-malelover/impassioneddead
woman-impassioned killer)revealsthenarcissistic
and autosensualpleasuresthat sustainfeminine
suffering. The son is undoubtedly themotherresur-
148 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
rectedbut, conversely,her "deaths" survivein
him-her humiliations and unnamedwoundshave
becomelivingflesh.Indeed,themorethatmater-
nal lovehoversovera woman'ssuffering, themore
thechildrepresents a painfuland subtletenderness.
The Japaneseand theGermaninHiroshimaare
also doubles.In theexperience oflove,theJapanese
manreawakens thememoryof theNeverswoman's
dead lover.But thetwomasculineimagesblendin
a hallucinatingpuzzlethatsuggests thatthelovefor
theGermanis presentand cannotpossiblybe for-
gottenand, bythesametoken,thattheloveforthe
Japanesemanis destinedto die.Suchis theredupli-
cation and exchangeof attributes.Throughthis
strangeosmosis,thevitality ofone ofthesurvivors
oftheHiroshimacatastrophe is shadowedbya ma-
cabre fate,whereasthe otherman's certaindeath
survives,diaphanous,inthewoman'swoundedpas-
sion.This reverberation of herloveobjectspulver-
izes theheroine'sidentity:she belongsto no time
butto thespace of contaminated entitieswhereher
own being oscillates,alternatelysaddened and
ravished.
The CriminalSecret
This techniqueof reduplicationculminatesin
The Vice-Consul.Anne-MarieStretter's decadent
melancholycomplementsthe expressionist mad-
ness of the BuddhistbeggarfromSavannakhet,
whoechoesthethemeoftheAsianwomanwiththe
gangrenousfootin The Sea Wall(94). Nextto this
woman'spoignantmiseryand rotting body,Anne-
Marie Stretter'sVenetiantearsseem a capricious
and insufferableluxury.Yetthe contrastbetween
thetwo does not hold once pain becomespartof
thepicture.The twowomen'simagesblendtogether
in malady,and Anne-MarieStretter's etherealuni-
versegainsa dimensionof madnessthatwouldbe
farweakerwithoutthe imprintof the wandering
woman.Botharemusicians,one a pianistand the
othera delirioussinger;bothare exiles,one from
Europe,the otherfromAsia; both are wounded:
one suffersfroman invisible
wound,theotheris the
gangrenousvictimof social, familial,humanvio-
lence.The duo becomesa triowiththeadditionof
anotherreplica,a masculinedouble: The Vice-
Consul of Lahore. A strangecharacter,he must
have some archaic,unavoweddistressthatis per-
ceptibleonlythroughhis purportedsadisticacts:
throwing stinkbombsin school,takinggunshotsat
livingbeingsinLahore.Buthas he,in fact,commit-
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tedtheseacts?Fearedbyeveryone, theVice-Consul
becomes Anne-Marie Stretter'saccomplice, al-
thoughthisman in love mustsufferhercoldness
sinceevenherseductive tearsarereservedforothers.
The Vice-Consulmightbe a vicioustransformation
of theambassador'smelancholywife,hermascu-
linereplica,hersadisticvariant,theexpressionof
theveryactshecannotcommit,eveninintercourse.
The trio of these unbalanced figures-theBud-
dhist,the Vice-Consul,the depressivewoman-
weavesa universethatescapestheothercharacters
in thenovel,howeverattachedtheymaybe to the
ambassador'swife.That universeoffersthenarra-
torrichgroundforherpsychologicalconcerns-
themadcriminalsecretthatliesbeneaththesurface
of our diplomaticbehaviorand to whichcertain
women,bytheirsadness,discreetly bear witness.
The act of love is oftenthe instanceof such
reduplication,each partnerbecomingthe other's
double.In La maladiede la mort,theman'sdeathly
obsessionmergeswithhis mistress'sthoughtsof
death. The tears of the man stimulatedby the
woman's "abominable fragility"respondto her
sleepy,detached silenceand revealits meaning:
suffering.Whatsheviewsas thefalsenessinhisdis-
course,whatdoes notcorrespond to thesubtlereal-
ityof things,is refractedin herindifference
to his
passion and herflightfromtheroom wherethey
made love.In thisway,thetwocharactersseemto
becometwovoices,twowaves"betweenthewhite
sheetsand the whiteocean" (Maladie 61; KAJ's
trans.).
A past pain fillsthesemenand womenwho are
doublesand replicasand diveststhemof all other
psychology. These carboncopies are individuated
only by theirproper names, incomparable,im-
penetrableblack diamonds over a suffering ex-
panse. Anne Desbaresdes,Lol V. Stein,Elisabeth
Alione, Michael Richardson,Max Thor,Stein-
thesenamesseemto condenseand retaina history
thatis perhapsas unknownto theirbearersas tothe
readerbutthatinheres intheirstrangeharmony and
in the end is almostrevealedto our own uncon-
sciousstrangeness, suddenlybecomingincompre-
hensiblyfamiliar.
Eventand HatredbetweenWomen
An echo of the deathly symbiosiswith the
mother,passionbetweentwowomenis one of the
mostintensefigures of doubling.Once Lol V. Stein
is dispossessedof herfiancebyAnne-MarieStret-
 JuliaKristeva
ter(who,we knowfromherinconsolablesadness
in The Vice-Consul,is notfulfilled
byhervictory),
she retreatswithina boredand inaccessibleisola-
tion:"to knownothingaboutLol Steinwasalready
to knowher" (Ravishing72). Yearslater,however,
wheneveryonebelievesshe has been curedand is
happilymarried,shespieson herformer friendTa-
tiana Karland JacquesHold makinglove.In fact,
sheis inlovewiththecouple,Tatianaespecially:she
wantsto takeTatiana'splace in thesame arms,the
same bed. This absorptionof the otherwoman's
passion-Tatiana beingthesubstituteforthe first
rival,Anne-MarieStretter,and she,inturn,forthe
mother-is also reversed:Tatiana,alwayscarefree,
now beginsto suffer.The two womenare carbon
ilieswerefriends."
copies fromnow on, replicasof each otherin the
scenarioof painthat,intheravishedeyesof Lol V.
Stein,governsthe world'smerry-go-round:
. thingsarebecomingsomewhatcleareraroundher,
and she is suddenlyseeingthesharpedges,theremains
thatare lefthereand therethroughout theworld,which
turnthiswayand that,sheseesthisleftover alreadyhalf
eatenbyrats,Tatiana'spain,andis embarrassed byit,sen-
timentis rifeeverywhere, people are slippingon that
greasysubstance.She used to thinkthatit was possible
forthereto be a timewhichfilledand emptiedalternately,
whichfilledand emptied,and thenwas readyto be used
again,always,to be used and reused,she stillbelievesit,
she willalwaysbelieveit,she willneverbe cured.
The twowomenecho each other.One finishesthe
(148)
other's words,and the other denies them even
Doubles multiply inDestroy,She Said and hover
overthethemeof destruction. Once namedin the
text,thatthemesurfacesto clarifythetitleand to
maketherelations inthenovelintelligible. Elisabeth
Alione,depressedin theaftermath of an unhappy
loveand thestillbirthof herdaughter, is recuperat-
ingin a desolatehotelfullofpeoplewhoareill.She
meetsSteinthereand his double,Max Thor,two
Jewseternallybecomingwriters:"how strongly
sometimesone feelsone mustn'twrite"(Destroy
27). He lovesAlissa; theyloveAlissa and are fasci-
natedbyElisa. Alissa Thordiscoversthatherhus-
band is happyto meetElisa, who seduces Stein.
Thusshe,too,letsherself be lovedbythesameStein
(thereaderis freeto composedyadsin thissugges-
tiveplot). She is dumbfoundedthatMax Thoren-
joys thiskaleidoscopicuniverseof doubles-with
Stein,and probablybecause of Elisa, althoughhe
claims to be happyalso because of Alissa. "De-
stroy,"she says(19). FullyinhabitedbyElisa, even
ifitis throughthisdestruction, Alissa sees herself
in Elisa and expresses,in theambiguity of identifi-
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149
cationand decomposition, a realmadnessbeneath
her freshand youthfulappearance: "I'm afraid.
. Afraidof beingabandoned,afraidof thefu-
ture,afraidof loving,of violence,of numbers,of
theunknown,of hunger,of poverty, of thetruth"
(45). Whose madness?Hers or Elisa's? "Destroy,
she said." The twowomenunderstandeach other,
however.Alissa is Elisa's voice.She repeatsElisa's
remarks,revealsherpast,foreseesa futureonlyof
repetitionsand doubles since the strangenessof
bothwomenmeansthateach becomesin timethe
other'sdouble and herown other:
Elisabethdoesn'tanswer.
"Wekneweachotheras children," shesays."Our fam-
Alissa repeatssoftly:
"We kneweach otheras children.Our familieswere
friends."
Silence.
"If you lovedhim,ifyou'dlovedhimonce,just once
in yourlife,you'd have loved the others,"Alissa says.
"Stein and Max Thor."
"I don'tunderstand ." Elisabethsays,"but .
"It'll happenothertimes," Alissa says,"later.And it
won'tbe you or them.Pay no attentionto whatI say."
"Stein saysyou'reinsane,"Elisabethsays.
"Stein willsay anything." (64-65)
thoughsheknowsthatthewordstella partoftheir
commontruth, theircomplicity.Thisdualitymight
come frombeingwomen,fromsharinga same,so-
calledhysterical, a readinessto takeone's
plasticity,
ownimagefortheother's("She feelswhattheother
feels" [82; KAJ's trans.]).Or does thisplasticity
comefromlovingthesamemaledouble?Fromhav-
ingno stableloveobject,dissectingthisobjectin a
shimmering of elusivereflections,lackingan axis
capable of arresting and calmingan endemicpas-
sion, one thatmightbe maternal?
Indeed,theman dreamsof her,of them.Since
Max Thoris in lovewithhiswife,Alissa,butdoes
notforget he is Stein'sdouble,he namesElisa inhis
dreamwhileSteinnamesAlissainhis.Elisa/Alissa.
Thus they"are bothreflectedin themirror":
"We'realike,"saysAlissa. "We'd love Steinifit were
possibleto love."
"How beautifulyou are," Elisabethsays.
"We'rewomen,"Alissa says. "Look."
"I love and desireyou," Alissa says. (62-64)
150 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
Despitethehomonymy, no identificationoccurs walls,theworld'sinjustice,
thesightof herchildren
betweenthem.Afterthefleeting momentof specu- splashingin theriver.. . . (17)
lar and hypnoticrecognition, thereis thedizzying
Drained by "misfortune,"exasperatedby her
impossibility of beingtheother.Hypnosis,which
daughter'sindiscriminate sexuality,themotherhas
generallymeans that "the one is the other,"here
nervousfits:"Ma showeredblowsupon heragain,
combines with the painfulawarenessthat their
as ifdrivenbyan irresistible compulsion.Suzanne,
bodilyfusionis impossible,thattheywillneverbe
at herfeet,halfnakedin hertorndress,wept..
inseparablemotherand daughter:Elisa's daughter
'AndsupposeI wantto killher?Suppose it would
is dead at birth,destroyed, and thisloss unbalances
please me to kill her?' " (109-10). Under the in-
each of theprotagonists and deepensherunstable
fluenceofthispassion,Suzannegivesherselfwith-
identity.
out lovinganyone-except,perhaps,herbrother,
The ingredients of thismixtureof hypnosisand
Joseph. And this incestuousdesire,which the
utopianpassionarejealousy,restrained hatred,fas-
brothersharesand actsout in hisownfuriousand
cination,sexualdesirefortherivaland herlover.A
quasi-delinquent manner(". . . itwas almostlike
whole spectrumis inscribedin the behaviorand
sleepingwitha sisterwhenI sleptwithher" [203]),
wordsof these lunaticcreatureswho experience
establishesthekeythemeofthenovelsthatfollow:
'enormouspain" and whodo notspeakbutrather
theimpossibility of a love limitedto doubles.
"sing"theircomplaints(79; KAJ'strans.).The vio-
Afterthe implosionof maternalhatredin the
lence of thesedrives,whichcannotbe reducedto
Buddhistwoman'smadness(The Vice-Consul), the
words,is veiledbyrestrained conduct,an internal
mutualmother-daughter destruction in TheLover
mastery thatcomesfroman attempt to givethecon-
makes us realize that the unleashingof mother
ductform,as one wouldwitha preexistent modeof
againstdaughterconstitutesthe "event"thatthe
writing.The cryof hatred,then,does notresound
withsavagebrutality. hatingand enamoreddaughterwatchesfor,ex-
It is transformed intoa mu-
periences,and reproducesin wonderment:"My
sicthatmakesvisibletheknowledgeof an invisible,
motherhas attacksduringwhichshe fallson me,
subterranean,uterinesecret,somethinglike the
locks me up in myroom,punishesme,undresses
smileof theVirginor theMona Lisa. It is a music
me,comesup to meand smellsmybody,myunder-
thatconveysto civilizationa disciplined,ravished,
wear,saysshe can smelltheChinese'sscent"(58).
butalwaysunrelieved painbeyondwords.It is a mu-
The elusivedouble thusrevealstheinsistent pres-
sic both neutraland destructive:"shatteringthe
ence of an archaic,uncontrollable, and imaginary
trees,thundering downthewalls,"but weakening
love object. It literallydeadensbyitsdomination
rageinto"sublimegentleness" and "purelaughter"
and evasions,itssororalor maternalproximity, but
(84, 85).
Does feminine melancholyfindreliefin reunion also itsimpregnable and therefore hatingand hate-
withtheotherwoman,whensheis imaginedas the fulexteriority. All thefiguresof love convergeon
man'sprivilegedpartner?Or does it thriveon the thisautosensualand ravaging objecteveniftheyare
impossibility of meetingand satisfying the other continuallyreanimatedby a masculinepresence.
woman? In any case, betweenwomen,restrained Oftencentral,theman'sdesireis nonethelessover-
hatredis drainedand returns whelmedand overtakenbythewoundedbut slyly
inwardly to theplace
wherearchaicrivalry liesimprisoned. Whendepres- powerfulpassivityof the women.Moreover,the
sion emerges,it is eroticizedin destruction:un- menare outsiders:theChineseman in TheLover,
leashed violence with the mother, graceful the Japaneseman in Hiroshima,mon amour,the
demolitionwiththe friend. seriesof Jewsor uprooteddiplomats.Sensual yet
The mad,dominating, broken-down motheris a abstract,theyare ravagedbya fearthattheirpas-
powerfulpresencein The Sea Wall."Desperateof sionnevermasters.Thisimpassionedfearfunctions
hopeitself"(113),shedetermines likethe backbone,axis, or launch forthe mirror
herchildren'ssex-
uality: gamesbetweenthewomen:theydisplaythefleshof
pain wheremenare its skeleton.
Thedoctortracedtheseattacks
ofherstothecrumbling
oftheseawall.Maybehewasmistaken. So muchresent- On theOtherSide of theMirror
mentcouldonlyhaveaccumulated veryslowly,yearby
year,daybyday.Therewasmorethanonesinglecause: In thespace thatseparatestwowomen,thereis
therewerethousands,
counting thecollapseof thesea a ravished,unfulfillable
dissatisfaction
thatcould

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 JuliaKristeva
crudelybe called femalehomosexuality. In Duras,
however, thisdissatisfaction involvesa profoundly
nostalgicquestforthesame as other,fortheother
as same withinthespectrumof narcissistic mirage
or hypnosisthatthenarratorconsidersinevitable.
She recountsthepsychicunderground thatprecedes
conquestsof the oppositesex,thatunderliesthe
possibleand perilousencounters betweenmenand
women.Traditionally, we pay no attentionto this
quasi-uterinespace. And we are not wrong.For
identities,
bonds,and feelingsaredestroyed inthis
cryptof reflections."Destroy,she said." Yet the
companyof womenis neithernecessarilysavage
nor simplydestructive. Out of thefragility or im-
of eroticbonds,thiscompanycreatesan
possibility
imaginaryaura of complicity, somewhatpainful
but necessarilymournful,so thatit drownsevery
sexualobject,everysublimeideal in itsnarcissistic
fluidity.Valuescannotholdout againstthe"irony
of the community," as Hegel referred to women.
Ironicor not,women'sdestructiveness is notfunny.
Pain unfoldsitsmicrocosm through thereverber-
ationof thecharacters. Theydoublethemselves as
in mirrors,magnifying theirmelancholyto the
pointof violenceand delirium.This dramaticart
of reduplicationrecallstheunstableidentity of the
child,who findsitsmother'simagein the mirror
onlyas a replica,a calmingor terrifying echo of it-
self.Likean alterego settledwithintherangeofin-
tensivedrivesthatmotivateit,detachedbut never
stable,themother'simageis alwayson thevergeof
reinvading thechild'sidentity in a hostileboomer-
angeffect.Identity, as a stableand solidself-image,
whereinthesubject'sautonomywillbe constituted,
can be achievedonlyat theendofthisprocess,once
narcissisticmirroring culminatesin a jubilantas-
sumptionthatis theworkof a third.
Even the most solid among us know,however,
thata firmidentityis a fiction.In grandiloquent
and emptywords,Durassianpainevokesan impos-
siblemourning that,wereitachieved,woulddetach
us fromourdoublenessand setus downas indepen-
dent and unifiedsubjects. Thus this mourning
seizesand drawsus to thedangerousbrinksof our
psychiclife.
Modernand Postmodern
This literature
of our maladiesparallelsthedis-
tressthatis generatedand accentuatedbythemod-
ernworldbut thatnonethelessremainsessential,
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151
transhistorical. It is a literatureoflimitsas wellbe-
cause itexposesthelimitsof theunnameable.The
characters' ellipticaldiscourse,theobsessiveevoca-
tionof a "nothing"thatcould sumup themalady
of pain designatea wreckageof wordsin theface
of the unnameableaffect.This silence,as I have
said,recallsthe"nothing"thattheValerianeyesaw
in an incandescent ovenat theheartofa monstrous
disorder. Duras does notorchestrate thisnothingas
did Mallarme,wholookedforthemusicin words,
or Beckett,who refineda syntaxthatstumblesor
advancesin fitsand starts,diverting the forward
motion of narrative.The reverberation of the
characters, theinscription of silence,and theinsis-
tenceon "nothingtosay"as theultimate manifesta-
tion of pain lead to a whitenessof meaning.
Combinedwithrhetorical awkwardness, theycon-
stitutea universeof troublingand contagious
malaise.
Historicallyand psychologically modern,this
writingfacestoday'spostmodernchallenge.From
nowon, "themaladyofpain" represents onlya mo-
mentof narrative synthesis justas capableof bear-
ingphilosophicalmeditationinitscomplexvortex
as eroticdefensesor diverting pleasures.The post-
modernlies closerto the humancomedythanto
abyssalmalaise.Hell itself,thoroughly exploredin
postwarliterature, seemsto havelostitsinfernal in-
accessibility and becomeourdaily,transparent, al-
mostbanal lot-a "nothing"-justas our "truths"
havebecomevisualized,televised, infact,notso se-
cretas all that.Today,thedesireforcomedycovers
over-withoutignoring, however-theconcernfor
truthwithouttragedy, thismelancholy withoutpur-
gatory. One is reminded of Marivaux and
Crebillon.
A newamorousworldis surfacing in theeternal
returnof historicaland mentalcycles.Afterthe
winterof worryfollowstheartificeof semblance;
afterthewhitenessof boredom,thesearingdiver-
sion of parody;and viceversa.Truth,in short,as-
serts itselfjust as well in the shimmeringsof
factitious pleasuresas in painfulmirror games.Af-
terall, does thewonderof psychiclifenotresidein
thesealternationsof defensesand failures,smiles
and tears,sunlightand melancholy?
Paris,France
TranslatedbyKatharineA. Jensen
152 The Worksof MargueriteDuras
Notes
' In literature
RogerCaillois favors"techniquesof exploring
theunconscious":"accounts-withor withoutcommentary-of
depressions,confusion,anguish, and affectivepersonal ex-
periences"(myitalics;KAJ's trans.).
2 "They both avoidedlookingat one another,overwrought
withthemselves, as iftheyfinally
hadbecomepartofthatgreater
thingwhichsometimes managesto expressitselfintragedy. .
as iftheyhad just againrealizedthemiracleof forgiveness;em-
barrassedbythatmiserablescene,theyavoidedlookingat each
other,uneasy,thereare so manyunaestheticthingsto forgive.
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But,evencoveredwithridiculeand rags,themimicry oftheresur-
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3 Duras is the authorof thirteenfilmscenariosand fifteen
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