In the dark room

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This collection examines Duras’s impact on contemporary cinema, using the metaphor of the ‘dark room’—la chambre noire—to describe her solitary writing process and the film theater experience. Duras challenges conventional cinematic forms that foster positive identification with narrative, instead creating unique relationships between image and sound, as well as diegetic and extra-diegetic elements. This innovative approach invites spectators to forge new connections with the screen. The book addresses the aesthetic, conceptual, and political challenges of Duras’s cinematic representation through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating film and literary theory, psychoanalysis, music theory, gender studies, and post-colonial criticism. It begins with a theoretical introduction to Duras’s cinematic practice and its distinctive role in contemporary film theory. The collection is organized into five parts, each focusing on a specific aspect of her films: the interplay between literature and cinema (Part One); the reconfiguration of the cinematic gaze (Part Two) and the relationship between image and sound (Part Three); and the representation of history and memory (Part Four) and cultural identity (Part Five).