This collection of papers from an international conference held at the Institut francais, London, in 1999 focuses on Marguerite Duras's place within the major literary, political and cultural events that helped define the 20th century. Covering the broad areas of Duras's public persona and paraliterary writings, her engagement with the image and with theatre, the implications of her politico-cultural trajectory, and her representations of the body, sexuality and transgression, the diversity of critical approaches deployed in this volume reflects the scope and rich texture of the author's oeuvre and the enduring fascination of the Duras phenomenon.