The Tension between Active and Obliterated Memory: Traumatic Realism in the Works of Patrick Modiano, Georges Perec and W. G. Sebald
Abstract
This study deals with the question of the representation of memory and trauma in the works of Patrick Modiano, Georges Perec and W. G.
Sebald. The study focuses on the possibilities and difficulties of representing the traumatic experience of the Holocaust as well as the tension between the authors' personal memory and the collective and cultural memory expressed in post-war literature.
Looking at the individual texts, the study traces various signs of traumatic narrative displayed in them, such as hypertrophied motifs of memory, disruptions of linear chronology or a specific register that makes elements of extreme experience penetrate into the everyday. The study concludes that by means of traumatic narration, the authors find common ground in the ethical imperative of testimony.