Plus sombre la nuit, plus claire la journée: « la beauté des nuits du monde » de Marguerite Duras

Abstract

The darker the night, the brighter the day: “the beauty of the world’s nights” by Marguerite Duras Night-time, the favorite time of awakening for Marguerite Duras, has an ambivalent status. In a colorful game, the sleepless night changes from white to black, from bright to dark. Rather than a standstill or loss of time, the night without sleep offers a spectacular acceleration and intensification. Since the night acts as a catalyst, insomnia confronts the characters to their inescapable fate. Staying awake becomes an act of resistance, for both, characters and author. Therefore, insomnia emphasizes emptiness and inaction, and transforms loss into creation and fulfillment. Which means that insomnia is more than a physical phenomenon: it acquires a metaphysical dimension in Marguerite Duras’s work.