Marguerite Duras: l’écriture illimitée by Joëlle Pagès-Pindon

Abstract

hardly expect Mazouer in three volumes (as announced on the back cover) to compete with Lancaster’s nine, and he is obviously aiming to provide an overview of a different kind, no doubt more directed at the student than the specialist. Nonetheless, given the amount of work that has been done on so-called ‘minor’ dramatists in recent years, I cannot help but feel that this is in some ways a missed opportunity. That is not to say that ‘minor’ dramatists do not feature here, but the main focus is indubitably on the canon. The book is divided into two parts: “La vie théâtrale dans la société classique ” and “Les œuvres de théâtre.” In this latter section, Mazouer looks at college and amateur theatre, before addressing the question of the decline of pastoral and of tragicomedy. Next comes a long chapter on “La tragédie de Corneille à Racine,” in which Boyer, Thomas Corneille, and Quinault also feature. The bulk of chapter ten, on “Molière et la comédie,” is devoted to a chronological survey of that author’s career, but also includes brief sections on Scarron, Boisrobert, Thomas Corneille, Racine, Montfleury, and some authors of petites comédies (Poisson, Chevalier, Hauteroche). And finally, an all too brief chapter (twenty-nine pages) examines “Théâtre et musique,” including pièces à machines and comédieballet , before culminating with “La naissance de l’opéra français.” To my mind, however, of still greater interest is part one, which opens with a discussion of “Les pouvoirs et le theatre” (King and Church) and continues with an extremely useful digest of information on the theatrical performance (place, troupes, stage design, acting style, repertory). Chapter three provides a synthesis of “La théorie du théatre,” chapter four looks at matters relating to the profession of playwright , and chapter five considers reception, including audience composition (Court and town), seating, behaviour, and taste, before concluding with a synthesis of criticism in the period. All of this makes the present volume an extremely useful tool: the ideal place to send a keen and curious undergraduate. However, the feature that lifts it out of the realm of student textbook and makes it a resource suitable for more advanced students and scholars is the impressive bibliography (sixty-one pages), which appears to contain everything ever written on seventeenth-century theatre or at least everything worth reading. When I was starting out, young researchers would spend long hours painstakingly copying bibliographical references from Klapp or Cioranescu onto index cards. The technology may have changed, but I imagine that many (myself included) will gain great benefit from the fact of Mazouer having shared with us his extensive knowledge of the subject, so admirably supported by this magnificent display of primary and secondary sources. Durham University (United Kingdom) Jan Clarke PAGÈS-PINDON, JOËLLE. Marguerite Duras: l’écriture illimitée. Paris: Ellipses, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7298-7222-9. Pp. 248. 18 a. Après une monographie consacrée à Duras (Ellipses, 2001), Pagès-Pindon, vice-présidente de L’Association Marguerite Duras, publie une seconde étude synthétique, claire et concise, des œuvres de l’écrivaine. Grâce, notamment, à un travail de recherche méticuleux dans divers fonds d’archives, Pagès-Pindon apporte des informations précieuses, et souvent inédites, sur la ‘création’ durassienne, terme qu’elle préfère à celui de littérature, même si ce sont presque exclusivement les Reviews 1267 écrits de Duras (romanesques, théâtraux et semi-autobiographiques) qui constituent l’objet de son ouvrage. Faisant écho à l’intitulé d’un film durassien (Agatha et les lectures illimitées), l’essai se propose de suivre un principe rimbaldien en lisant l’œuvre “littéralement et dans tous les sens” (9). S’appuyant sur des éléments biographiques, des analyses ponctuelles de textes et des travaux critiques, les dix chapitres résument, approfondissent ou renouvellent, de façon chronologique et thématique, les questions fondamentales concernant l’origine, la forme et le sens des œuvres de Duras. Tout en renvoyant à des procédés différents, ils s’articulent autour d’une notion-clé, celle de ‘mythe’. Venu du...