Le devoir de mémoire et le droit à l’oubli : deux représentations littéraires

• Authors: Malinovská Zuzana

Title variants

EN

THE DUTY TO REMEMBER AND THE RIGHT TO FORGET: TWO LITERARY EXPRESSIONS

• Languages of publication: FR

Abstracts

EN

The paper proposes an interpretation of two aesthetically convincing contemporary novels (L. Salvayre: La Compagnie des spectres, and C. Mavrikakis: Fleurs de crachat) dealing with the issues of memory (individual and collective, communicative and cultural). It proves that both texts, focusing on the intergenerational transmission of memories of the tragic events of World War II, come to the same conclusions as well-known memory theorists. On the one hand, they suggest that the duty to remember the victims of the past cannot be negated. On the other, they remind that memory cannot be promoted to the goal and the sole purpose of existence. Indeed, it is always necessary to keep the right measure, the so-called juste mémoire (Ricœur). Phenomena such as saturation of memory by traumatic events (Robin), selective trauma-centred memory, “sacralisation” or “abuse of the memory” (Todorov) threaten the mental health of the individual.

Keywords

FR

mémoire; transmission; traumatisme; abus de la mémoire; littérature narrative contemporaine L. Salvayre; C. Mavrikakis

EN

memory; transmission; trauma; abuse of the memory; narrative and contemporary literature; L. Salvayre; C. Mavrikakis

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Svět literatury – Časopis pro novodobé literatury (World of Literature – Journal for Modern Literatures)
• Year: 2020
• Volume: XXX
• Issue: Zvláštní číslo – Le monde de la littérature
• Pages: 187-195

Contributors

author

Malinovská Zuzana

• Université de Prešov

Identifiers

DOI

10.14712/23366729.2020.3.16