Memory at work in Georges Perec’s Lieux Cover Image

La mémoire au travail dans Lieux de Georges Perec
Memory at work in Georges Perec’s Lieux

Author(s): Mariano D'Ambrosio
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Instytut Filologii Romańskiej & Wydawnictwo Werset
Keywords: Georges Perec; Lieux; memory; autobiography; unfinished works; posthumous publication, hypertext

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to offer an interpretation of Lieux, Georges Perec’s unfinished project published posthumously in 2022, as a pivotal work in the development of his approach to memory, considered both as work and as a call for sharing. At the beginning, a brief history of the project in question will be outlined in order to identify the challenges involved in writing it, understand possible reasons for its abandonment, and answer questions concerning legitimacy of its recent publication in two formats, both as a traditional book and a hypertext. Then, building upon Philippe Lejeune’s work La mémoire et l’oblique, the article will propose an interpretation of Lieux focused on the approaches to memory at work within this text. Perec’s experimental approach towards autobiography, faced with interrogation, trial-and-error exploration, and uncertainties of the author, is reflected in a hybrid, wandering writing, foreshadowing key notions developed in the author’s later projects, such as the multiple, the potential, the call for sharing.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 12
  • Page Range: 112-124
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English, French
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