The fig tree

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Dorothea Wright (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Randall Jarrell

Abstract: The Fig Tree was originally conceived and written as a long short story. After May of 195U, both theme and characterization were gradually expanded until the short story had become a novelette. The action of the novelette takes place in the south of France, in a small village just north of Nice. The place is called La Colle sur Loup, but it is always referred to as La Colle by all the inhabitants. My own familiarity with the place is based on the experiences of a single summer in 1949. I have been back only briefly since then, in 1953. In 1952 I wrote a very short story which had as its main theme the rivalry of two families living in that village; it was a completely unsuccessful story, but it was obvious to me that the place had captured my imagination. In the early months of 1954 I wrote the story which was to provide me with the basic framework for the novelette. The idea for the story was reborn after my second visit to the village, and I thought about it all through the fall but was afraid to tackle it, since I had a feeling that it would grow into a "big" thing. My knowledge of La Colle would probably be purely fragmentary were it not for the fact that I have two aunts and their husbands, a grandmother, and now my mother, all living in the village. My aunts' husbands are both fruit farmers, and for some years they would not even speak to each other.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 1955

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