Duras, Marguerite

French writer, dramatist, and film-maker. Her work includes short stories (‘Des Journées entières dans les arbres’ 1954, stage adaptation Days in the Trees 1965), plays (La Musica/The Music 1967), and film scripts (Hiroshima, mon amour 1960, India Song 1975). She also directed stage productions and film versions of her work. Her novels include Le Vice-consul/The Vice-Consul (1966), evoking an existentialist world from the setting of Calcutta (now Kolkata); L'Amant/The Lover (1984; Prix Goncourt), which deals with a love affair between a young French woman and a Chinese man; and Emily L. (1989). La Vie matérielle (1987) appeared in England as Practicalities (1990). Her autobiographical novel, La Douleur (1986), is set in Paris in 1945.