Claire Duras, Ourika

Sylvie Pascale Dewey (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol, Nigel Harkness, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Domains

Race

Dates

First circulation or publication 1823

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Claire-Louise Lechat de Coëtnempren de Kersaint (1777-1828), better known by her aristocratic friends and posterity as Madame de Duras, was born in Brest into the generation destined to suffer most intensely the trauma of the French Revolution. Her estranged father, a Girondist navy admiral, was guillotined in 1794. Her mother, a wealthy creole from Martinique, held considerable holdings on the island, and, after her father’s death, Claire accompanied her mother to Philadelphia to rescue her inheritance from confiscation. While there has long been speculation that they both also travelled to Martinique where she would have gained first-hand knowledge of the

traite

and plantation system, there is no archival evidence for this (see Jenson, p. 101). Unable to return to France due to the…

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3361 words

Citation: Dewey, Sylvie Pascale. "Ourika". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32188, accessed 21 November 2024.]