“All the Sleeping Beauties were Waiting for Him” The Work of Marguerite Duras as “Becoming-a-Fairy Tale”

From her earliest works, Marguerite Duras drew inspiration from the European tradition of fairy tales, borrowing from them their power to enchant, to plunge us into the wonder of childhood. From 1980 onwards, and particularly in La Pluie d’été and L’Été 80, this hitherto implicit use became explicit, though the novelist was careful to neutralise the moralising dimension that is usually attributed to fairy tales.