SOURCE: “The Drive for Power in Marguerite Duras' ‘L'Amant,’” in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. XXX, No. 3, July, 1994, pp. 204-18.

In the following essay, Martin examines power in The Lover as it is used by and against the narrator.

The nature of power has not been discussed in relation to L'Amant.¹ Power evokes desire, obedience, the forbidden, terror and fear, especially the fear of suffering and death; it is rendered still more powerful when those who provoke desire do not entirely reciprocate it; when there is conflict with the pleasure principle; when the forbidden is no longer kept secret but deliberately rendered public. It is on the basis of these thoughts that I propose to examine L'Amant and the power relationships in this autobiographical novel.² I shall focus first on the origins of the heroine's drive for power, seen in the complex nature of her relationships with...