Georges Perec’s W or The Memory of Childhood
This week’s reading of W or The Memory of Childhood was reflective and insightful about the author's experience. At the start of the book, I was confused for a while about the significance of the second story about Gaspard Winkler, but as the story of W progressed I was able to start comparing it to Perec’s experience. I loved the style the author wrote this novel in. The autobiography paired with the fictional island of W gave the text different elements that provide the reader more to think about.
The narration from Perec’s perspective showed fragments of his childhood memories. He lost both of his parents to World War II at a very young age. I think the trauma caused him to repress his memories as he was often not sure about all the specifics in his own memories. A lot of the language in this narrative was hesitant, words like vague, hazy, and many I don’t remember or I don’t recall. The author says it himself on page 68, “What marks this period especially is the absence of landmarks: these memories are scraps of life snatched from the void. No mooring. Nothing to anchor them or hold them down. Almost no way of ratifying them. No sequence in time, except as I have reconstructed it arbitrarily over the years.”
In the second narrative the army deserter, Gaspard Winckler journeys to the island W, where a brutal version of the Olympic games takes place. This story combined with Perec’s life story highlights the fight for survival so many people, Perec included had to face. The brutality and cruelty in these games, I think, are somewhat of a metaphor for the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish people along with the other prisoners held by the Nazis. While reading about the W it seems impossible or only fiction for a society to function as this one does. I was slow to understand why it was even in this book, but from the middle, towards the end, it became clear that W was referencing power relations and the extent of oppression groups of people can be shown by other groups. On the last page, the excerpt from David Rousset’s Univers concentrationnaire we see that the harsh reality Perec illustrates in the fictional W is taken directly from real events.
My question for the class is: How does comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to W help Perec or the reader process these events?
Hey Megan, I was also confused about the purpose of the fictional story about Gaspard Winkler and the W island, but I agree that this story worked to help Perec process the trauma from his childhood. By comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to the W island, Perec is able to process the events through a detached lens, perhaps making it easier than if he were to explicitly state the atrocities that he witnessed. The story adds an opportunity for a more disengaged account of events to protect himself. Thanks for your post! (Anna M)
ReplyDeleteMegan, I like what you say about the writing being "hesitant". To your little list we can also add "I don't think it likely..." (51), "I don't think I lived..." (79)...
ReplyDeleteMy question for you, is how do you think this relates to postmodernist writing in general, and what Perec is trying to achieve in particular?