AN ABSENT WITNESS: THE AFFECTS OF TRAUMA ON MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN GEORGE PEREC’S JE SUIS NÉ AND WOULE SOUVENIR D’ENFANCE - A Thesis

Aug 24, 2026

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This thesis examines Georges Perec’s relationship to traumatic childhood experience through the way his writing handles memory, identity, and autobiography. Although Perec was deterred from writing a straightforward autobiography, his works contain autobiographical elements. The study interprets denial as a pervasive strategy, addressing how denial can be recognized, how Perec expresses ambivalence, and why he both diverts attention from autobiography and yet supplies elements of what he refuses to communicate.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages45

Reading Time1 h 53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Je suis né

Incomplete Autobiographical Projects – L’Arbre

Incomplete Autobiographical Projects – Lieux

Perec’s Jewish Identity

The Inception of W

The Question of the Witness (or, the Witness in Question)

Perec’s Silence

Fragmentation and the Jewish Identity

Mourning or Melancholia?

The scar

Conclusion

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

ABSTRACT AN ABSENT WITNESS: THE AFFECTS OF TRAUMA ON MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN GEORGE PEREC’S JESUISNÉ AND WOULE SOUVENIR D’ENFANCE by Valerie Anne Krock French author Georges Perec was deterred from writing an explicit autobiography, yet his works exhibit autobiographical aspects. Perec’s failure to write an autobiography in a straightforward manner may be attributed to the fact that he suffered a traumatic childhood experience: he was orphaned during World War II, losing his father to the battlefield and his mother to the Holocaust. This thesis seeks to comprehend Perec’s reaction to his traumatic experience and how this manifests itself in his writing. This thesis seeks to answer the questions: What constitutes the denial in Perec’s writing? How can the reader discern it? How does Perec express ambivalence about his traumatic experience? How does he divert the reader’s attention away from his autobiography? Why does he provide elements of the very thing that he is denying? By evaluating these questions, I will examine the paradox of Perec’s use of writing not to communicate. AN ABSENT WITNESS: THE AFFECTS OF TRAUMA ON MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN GEORGE PEREC’S JESUISNÉ AND WOULE SOUVENIR D’ENFANCE A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of French by Valerie Anne Krock Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2006 Advisor James Creech Reader ________________________ Elisabeth Hodges Reader ________________________ Paul Sandro Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………................ 1 Je suis né…………………………………………………………………………………4 Incomplete Autobiographical Projects – L’Arbre ……………………………………….. 9 Incomplete Autobiographical Projects – Lieux ................................................................ 10 Perec’s Jewish Identity ……………………………………………………………….... 16 The Inception of W……………………………………………………………………... 20 The Question of the Witness (or, the Witness in Question)………………………........ 26 Perec’s Silence ……………………………………………………………………….…30 Fragmentation and the Jewish Identity ……………………………………………........ 32 Mourning or Melancholia?………………………………………………………...…... 35 The scar ………………………………………………………………………….……... 37 Conclusion …………………………………………………………….……………….. 39 Bibliography ………………………………………………………….………………... 40 Acknowledgements Many individuals have assisted me in the creation of this thesis. I would like to thank: - my parents, Rich and Marilyn Krock, for their patience and encouragement, for instilling in me my love of reading and writing - Elisabeth Hodges, for introducing me to Georges Perec’s writing, for inspiring me to do graduate work in French - Jim Creech, for guiding my research, for his patience with me and my very, very rough drafts (and my split infinitives) - the Easter miracle: the weekend that I finished writing this work. I would also like to acknowledge every single French teacher I’ve ever had (in chronological order): Mme DuBois Mme Roache Mme Darlington Amy Staples Jim Creech Randy Runyon Michel Pactat Elisabeth Hodges Mme Kieffer-Kinsch Claire Goldstein Patricia Reynaud Mark McKinney Paul Sandro Nick Nesbitt And to the rest ofthe Miami University Department of French & Italian, who may have inadvertently inspired me. Introduction What makes a writer? A writer is someone who seeks to express himself, someone who has something to say – whether it be an opinion to share or a story to tell. Typically, a writer has a lot to say. Writers seek readers, listeners, so that their writing will not be just words on a page, but a story that affects others. A writer may have selected written words over spoken ones. It is hard to imagine being a writer and being incapable of writing on a particular subject. It is especially hard to imagine if the writer having such difficulties

FAQs

Why does the thesis focus on denial in Perec’s writing?

The research argues that denial runs through many of Perec’s works and functions as a defensive tool that distances him from trauma while shaping how autobiographical material appears.

What traumatic childhood experiences does the thesis identify as central to Perec?

It highlights that Perec was orphaned during World War II: his father died in battle, his mother was deported to Auschwitz, and Perec was forced to hide and endure orphanage life while suppressing his Jewish identity.

How does Perec’s approach to autobiography differ from a typical autobiography?

The thesis explains that Perec avoids direct disclosure while still embedding personal memories and sentiments, leading to a paradox where writing does not communicate in a straightforward way.

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Levi