Women’s History and Race Claire de Duras "Ourika" 1824 Early French Novel of Black Female Identity and Exclusion

Claire de Duras

First Edition

Duras, Claire de. Ourika, 1824, presents one of the earliest sustained literary treatments of race, gender, and social exclusion in nineteenth-century European literature, centering a Black female protagonist raised within French aristocratic society. The novella follows Ourika, a Senegalese girl educated and socially refined within elite French circles, whose status remains defined by racial hierarchy despite her assimilation. Duras, a French aristocrat writing in the aftermath of the Revolution, situates the narrative within ongoing debates over slavery, colonialism, and citizenship, giving psychological depth to the experience of racialized isolation. The text frames its central theme through the epigraph, “This is to be alone, this, this is solitude!”, foregrounding the enforced alienation that structures Ourika’s life and emotional world. The work engages directly with the social limitations imposed on Black individuals in European society and contributes to early literary discourse on race and interiority.

Duras, Claire de. Ourika. Paris: Chez L’Advocat, Libraire de Son Altesse Sérénissime Monseigneur le Duc de Chartres, 1824. Deuxième édition. Text in French. Octavo volume, bound in contemporary half leather with marbled boards, spine gilt titled “Ourika.” Published “au profit d’un établissement de charité.”

Issued during the Bourbon Restoration, this edition aligns with a period of continued instability in French policy toward slavery and colonial governance, following abolition in 1794, reinstatement under Napoleon, and final abolition in 1848. The narrative’s focus on a Black female subject within aristocratic society places it within broader intellectual efforts to confront the contradictions of Enlightenment ideals and racial inequality. Duras’s portrayal of Ourika as educated, perceptive, and socially constrained contributed to later Romantic and post-Romantic explorations of marginalized identity. Rubbing to binding extremities with some loss at head and tail of spine; scattered foxing, heavier on preliminary leaves; binding sound; overall good condition.

Item #22977

Price: $850.00