In Search of Duras’s Ourika

Ourika, the French novelette by Claire de Duras has been a point of avid discussion from its publication in 1823 to the present. By 1824 the story had been reprinted in second, third and fourth editions, adapted for the stage, and lauded by such nineteenth century luminaries as Chateaubriand, Goethe and Sainte-Beuve. A likeness of the protagonist, a slave girl raised as a French aristocrat, was commissioned by Louis XVIII. In her introduction to Ourika‘s 1977 English translation, literary critic Joan DeJean writes, ―In a few months, the anonymously and privately printed novel had evolved from a story Duras entertained her friends within the privacy of her popular salon 1 ,‖ to ―one of the most widely circulated novels of the day‖ (Duras viii). In his foreword Fowles distinguishes the book as the ―first serious attempt by a white novelist to enter a black mind‖ (xxx). DeJean concurs, ―Duras [has] created an African character who is truly an individual and not simply a type...a heroine designed more than anything to make the experience of prejudice as it is endured by its victim...a reality‖ (Durasxi, xii). While DeJean‘s conclusions reflect a pervasively shared view, they are, like Duras‘s rendering of her protagonist, highly problematic. Contrary to Fowles‘s assertion, Ourika signifies stock character: the maltreated Negress who is inexorably impelled to hate herself because she is black. Rather than inspiring deeper understanding, the portrait elicits pity.