In this essay I examine Marguerite Duras’ anticolonial standpoint in the Swedish translation of hernovel Un barrage contre le Pacifique. The analysis demonstrates that the text itself reveals traces ofa colonial and problematic view of the local population of the floodplains where the novel is set.Certain passages regarding both the white protagonist family and the locals in the novel is examinedand discussed from a postcolonial perspective. The way the inhabitants of the novel are describedand the way the narrative is focalized creates differences between the white colonial family and thelocal population. This results in a highlighting of the suffering of the colonial family, and silencesthe voices of the locals.In dialogue with earlier research on Duras and the postcolonial, this essay especially focuseson the way the local women and children are portrayed in the novel. It criticizes the view of Durasas a subversive anticolonial voice, since such a view ignores the novel’s tendency to reproduce aracist portrayal of the Other. Even though the novel itself gives voice to an explicit criticism of thecolonial system, this is in no way a guarantee for it not to be reproducing harmful ways ofportraying colonized populations in a colonial tradition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-29347 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Nasiell Holm, Katja |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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