Fluidity in Marguerite Duras' Le Vice-consul : An Architectural Reflection on Culture and Consciousness

This thesis explores Marguerite Duras’ Le Vice-consul (1966) through an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and literature. Five architectural elements found within the novel – path, park, grille, octagon, and study—are explored through the concept of the “fluid” mise en abyme outlined in Lucy Stone McNeece’s Art and Politics in Duras’ “India Cycle” (1966). The contrasting theme of fluid versus rigid assumed a physical and symbolic meaning in both architectural and literary realms.

The analysis reveals a connection between the fluid framework of this nouveau roman and the structure of the built environment, which impacts our surroundings and psyche. Exploring the interwoven paths of the characters within the novel – the beggar-woman, Anne-Marie Stretter, and the Vice-consul – Duras makes an indirect political critique of colonialism, that is, the struggle to adapt within a foreign environment and to find one’s identity and personal freedom within the “paternalism” of Western imperialism. At the same time, the characters’ movements within an architectural framework suggest the role of architecture in shaping human consciousness.

In the spirit of the noveau roman, this thesis concludes as a work in progress, offering questions which, as Alain Robbe-Grillet remarked, “ne se connaissent pas encore elle- mêmes” (Robbe-Grillet, Pour un nouveau roman).