On Tuesday, 24/9launch Summer of the 80s, new title The Marguerite Duras Collection (Reliquary). Considered by critics to be one of Duras’ most representative books, it brings together ten of the writer’s chronicles published in newspapers. Releasewritten from his window overlooking Trouville beach.
For the chat that will be broadcast live Relicario YouTube Channel will be collected from 19 hoursIsabela Bosi, Luciene Guimarães and Marcelo Moutinho.
WRITING WITH SEA AND WORLD VIEWS
In a chronicle, originally published in ‘Libération’, Marguerite Duras subverts the journalistic approach to the genre in synesthetic prose.
“The chronicle doesn’t have a title, it’s like that
chapters of a fragmented narrative
about time, in his version
climate and eye movement for
the outside world and into the private world
from the chronicler, like that long poem
never gets tired of surprising and delighting
constructing similes, metaphors, and images
captivating.”
_The Silvan
The latest title in the Marguerite Duras Collection is solar and could not be more familiar to the Brazilian reading public, because it is a chronicle. Considered by critics as one of Duras’ most representative books, Summer of the 80s brings together ten chronicles of the author published in the newspaper Releasewritten from his window overlooking Trouville beach.
Translated by Adriana Lisboa, Marguerite Duras’s chronicle can be read as a profound reflection on memory and the human condition. In her text, the French-speaking author weaves a unique view of the historical events that marked the year 1980, linking them to the subjectivity of her environment in the Normandy summer.
Between factual and literary
In 1980, Marguerite Duras accepted an offer from Serge July, the editorial director Releaseto publish a weekly summer series in the form of an up-to-date chronicle.
“Her chronicle style is unique. At the same time as she talks about current events, with a literary style, she gives a light impression when talking about the climate and the contemplation of the sea”, explains Luciene Guimarães, coordinator of the Marguerite Duras Collection and specialist in the author’s work. “Political and social issues are there, but she observes, as a writer,
collecting material for his work. And in the chronicles he makes this combination brilliantly, with literary taste,” he added.
Under his broad gaze are the construction sites of Gdansk, the famine in Uganda, the Olympics in Moscow, the funeral of the Shah of Iran, Russian tanks in Kabul… But also a gray-eyed child, a shark named Rakéboumboum, a summer camp monitor and birds in the sky. These are critical texts about the French and world context of the 1980s – yet at the same time very current – blending personal memories and universal issues, inviting us to deep reflections on life, time, love, politics and the human condition.
“Hardly makes a chronicle”
Writer Cidinha da Silva signed the text with his ear Summer of the 80s. In it, Cidinha highlights how Marguerite Duras “makes the chronicle a fable, defying the vaunted journalistic approach to the genre or the short, fun and frugal aspect that usually imprisons it.”
In the book, Duras takes us to a tumultuous period in world history, with the invasion of Afghanistan, the famine in Africa, and the Polish workers’ strike. However, it goes beyond reporting the facts, exploring the nuances and implications of these events for society. In her chronicles, the author launches a sharp social critique, exposing the injustice and indifference of humanity to the suffering of others.
The passage of time is a central theme in Duras’ work, which explores the relationship between present and past, memory and forgetting, showing how historical events shape our lives and identities.
Synesthetic, Marguerite Duras’ prose is rich in imagery, sensation and emotion. Her poetic language evokes the complexity of human experience, immersing us in the book and inviting us to think about the world, about ourselves and about our place in history, beyond time and space.
Quote from the book
“I spent a long time in front of the blank pages and then I closed the house, went to my room and found myself again in front of the blank pages of the Gdansk attack. Everyone could see Uganda. Not Gdansk, almost no one could see what Gdansk was. Suddenly the truth came out: almost no one could still feel happiness for what happened in Gdansk. I was alone, and in this happiness. I was in the loneliness that I recognize, that we recognize among all people, without any help at the moment, irreparable political loneliness. It was this happiness that I could not tell anyone about that stopped me from writing. That’s all. I tried to call old friends, I could not find anyone, there was no one anywhere. People no longer know how to see happiness in Gdansk because its revolutionary nature and revolutionary thinking have left society.” (p. 75)
About the author
Margaret Duras is one of the most famous writers in French literature. The daughter of a French mother and father, she was born in 1914 in Indochina – then a French colony, now Vietnam –, where her parents had gone to earn a living. The writer spent her childhood and adolescence there, a period of Asian experience that marked her memory and greatly influenced her work. In 1932, at the age of 18, Marguerite went to Paris, where she studied law at the Sorbonne University. In 1943, she published her first novel, You are rudethen began a successful career in literature, cinema, theater, and the press, producing dozens of film scripts, drama texts, and novels, among others. The lover (a bestseller that won him the Goncourt prize in 1984 and was translated into many countries), A dam against the Pacific English: The Ascension of Lol V. Stein. His work is associated with a movement called new novel (new novel) and existentialism. In 1959, he wrote the screenplay for the film Hiroshima, my lovedirected by Alain Resnais and received praise at Cannes. In the 1970s, he devoted himself exclusively to the world of cinema. Indian songs English: Truck screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975 and 1977 respectively. He died at the age of 81 in Paris, in 1996.
About the Marguerite Duras Collection
The titles that make up the Marguerite Duras Collection represent part of her work and move through various genres, including essays, scripts, novels and so-called text films. Coordinated by Luciene Guimarães and with five volumes already published, this collection presents the work of Marguerite Duras represented by a careful selection of titles. Each title by Duras is published with a paratext written by French and Brazilian-speaking researchers, as well as by experts dedicated to carefully deciphering Duras’s poetry.
Published titles:
To write • Hiroshima my love • Moderato Cantabile. Blue eyes, black hair & Prostitute from the Normandy coast • The Ascension of Lol V. Stein
Upcoming releases:
Disease of death • Destroy it, he said. • Atlantic Man •
The man sitting in the aisle • A dam against the Pacific
Technical specifications
Title: Summer of the 80s
Author: Margaret Duras
Translation: Adriana Lisbon
Layer text: The Silvan
Foreword: Anne Brancsy’s
Indonesian: Call 978-65-89889-92-2
Category: Foreign literature, chronicles
Tie: brochure
Format: Size 13×19.5x1cm
Page: 120
Heavy: 0.3kg
Edition: 1ª (past.-set. 2024) Cover price: Rp. 62.90