Journeys of Remembrance
Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980

Kathryn N. Jones

Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

23 February 2007  •  170pp

ISBN: 978-1-904350-66-8 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-351196-15-4 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ContemporaryFrenchGermanTravelLife-WritingFiction


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's 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.

Kathryn N. Jones is Lecturer in French at the University of Swansea.

Reviews:

  • ‘A fascinating and well-structured approach to a complex subject, and its transnational focus not only provides an original insight into a range of European writers, but also shows how profitable it is to go beyond the more usual national studies of memory and war.’ — Hilary Footitt, Modern Language Review 103.3, July 2008, 817-17 (full text online)
  • ‘The study is about memories and impressions of the later years' holocaust... The striking photograph shows us an empty world with a bleak railway line and its sidetracks, making their way into the fearful forested world that was Auschwitz, practically a symbol of the Final Solution. And with this in mind, Kathryn Jones's study is a success.’ — John Dunmore, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 29.2, 2008, 65-66
  • ‘Jones departs unequivocally from Adorno's dictat on the incompatibility of art and atrocity and, through her deft presentation of a succession of more or less metaphorical journeys, she makes a good case. This valuable book for all scholars of post-war French and Ger man culture will enhance the reader’s understanding of what Paul Ricoeur once termed 'l'événement fondateur négatif' of the last century.’ — David Platten, French Studies 63.3 (2009), 370-71
  • ‘An ambitious study that succeeds in bearing out its claims about diverse yet contemporaneous literary responses to WWII. Journeys of Remembrance is a valuable introduction to a body of post-WWII French and German writing concerned with the intergenerational transmission of memory and the relation between personal identity and cultural legacy.’ — Susan Derwin, Monatshefte 102.1, 2010, 118-20
  • ‘An illuminating comparative analysis... Offers much to consider concerning the development and transmission of memory, generational continuity and rupture, and fictional representation in Holocaust literature.’ — Homer B. Sutton, French Review 82.5, April 2009, 1066-67

Bibliography entry:

Jones, Kathryn N., Journeys of Remembrance: Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980 (Legenda, 2007)

First footnote reference: 35 Kathryn N. Jones, Journeys of Remembrance: Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980 (Legenda, 2007), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Jones, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Jones, Kathryn N.. 2007. Journeys of Remembrance: Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Jones 2007: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Jones 2007: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)


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