Journeys of Remembrance: Representations of Travel and Memory in Post-war French and German Literature

by Kathryn Jones

Overview

"The Second World War was a common experience of cultural and historical rupture for many European countries, but studies of this period and its after-images often remain locked in national frameworks. Jones' comparative study of national memory cultures argues for a more nuanced view of responses to shared issues of remembrance. Focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, two decades of great change and debate in French and German discourses of memory, it investigates literary representations of the Second World War, and in particular the Holocaust, from France and both Germanies. The study encompasses thirteen works representing a variety of genres and divergent perspectives, and authors include Jorge Semprun, Peter Weiss, Georges Perec and Bernward Vesper. Addressing the underlying theme of travel as a means of exploring the past, it contrasts the journeys made by deportees and post-war visitors to the camps with the use of the journey as a literary device."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351196130
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	941 KB

About the Author

Kathryn Jones

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 Remembering the War Years in France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic from the Late 1950s to 1980 17

2 'A New Mode of Travel': Representations of Deportation in Charlotte Delbo's Auschwitz et Après and Jorge Semprun's Le Grand Voyage 34

3 Visiting the Camps in 1960s and 1970s Travelogues by Horst Krüger, Günter Kunert, Rolf Schneider, and Peter Weiss 54

4 Fictional Representation of the Holocaust in H. G. Adler's Bine Reise and Georges Perec's W ou le souvenir d'enfance 73

5 Conversations with the Father in Elisabeth Plessen's Mitteilung an den Adel, Bernward Vesper's Die Reise, and Patrick Modiano's Les Boulevards de ceinture 90

6 German Origins and Exile: Évelyne Le Garrec's La Rive allemande de ma mémoire and Maren Sell's Mourir d'absence 114

Conclusion 136

Bibliography 143

Index 155