2018 Madsen Kelsey Dissertati
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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE RAISING THEIR VOICES: MEMORY, JUSTICE, AND GENRE IN SECOND- GENERATION FRENCH LITERATURE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By KELSEY B. MADSEN Norman, Oklahoma 2018 RAISING THEIR VOICES: MEMORY, JUSTICE, AND GENRE IN SECOND- GENERATION FRENCH LITERATURE A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND LINGUISTICS BY _______________________________ Dr. Pamela Genova, Chair _______________________________ Dr. Michel Lantelme _______________________________ Dr. Julia Abramson _______________________________ Dr. Jennifer J. Davis _______________________________ Dr. Logan E. Whalen _______________________________ Dr. Michael Winston © Copyright by KELSEY B. MADSEN 2018 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements It is my pleasure to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals who have supported me throughout my studies. First and foremost, I would like to recognize the two people who have most influenced the course of this dissertation. I am truly humbled by the generosity Dr. Pamela Genova has shown in dedicating countless hours to reading and revising multiple drafts of my chapters. Dr. Genova, with her thoughtful comments, probing questions, and meticulous editing, has transformed my writing and argumentation. I look forward to applying the skills Dr. Genova has modeled as a writer and as a professor during my continued career as a scholar. Moreover, her humorous marginalia, in the form of witty or sarcastic comments in my drafts, provided me with a much-needed sense of camaraderie during the isolated writing process. For all of this I am exceedingly grateful. I also thank Dr. Michel Lantelme for directing the earlier years of my doctoral work and especially for helping me determine the topic—and texts—that are the subject of this project. The graduate seminars and independent study courses that I took with him indelibly shaped my research interests, and he challenged me to always find le fil conducteur in the text and in my own writing. His continued candid feedback during his time in France has benefited my work. I also extend thanks to the other members of the committee who have provided valuable counsel over the course of this dissertation and, more broadly, during my time at the University of Oklahoma. When I would send each chapter to the committee for comments, Dr. Logan Whalen would always respond with astonishing rapidity. I am indebted to him for his attention to detail—especially as regards consistency of style and formatting—as well as his encouraging words about my work. In fact, I believe iv that, when I was an undergraduate, Dr. Whalen was the first professor to suggest that I consider graduate school. Dr. Julia Abramson has consistently engaged with my work with bracing intellectual rigor. Her questions and observations identify perceptively areas for additional contemplation and development, and, crucially, they have helped me envision directions for my future book project. I also thank Dr. Michael Winston for his insightful comments on my dissertation, which arrived in my email inbox handwritten and scanned, in true Winstonian fashion. Furthermore, his prior recommendation of Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning’s Companion to Cultural Memory Studies (2010) proved essential in my preparations for the doctoral exams and for this dissertation. Dr. Winston’s teaching style, which tends to involve frequent (and fascinating) digressions, has markedly influenced my own methods in the classroom. Finally, I offer my gratitude to Dr. Jennifer J. Davis for supplying a historian’s perspective on my research on history and memory in contemporary literature. I reflect frequently on the topics I discussed with her in an independent study course, which she agreed generously to hold over the summer of 2013 prior to the birth of my son that October. The readings she recommended have had a permanent impact on my research. In addition to my committee, I would like to express my indebtedness to the influence of Dr. Janet Ward and her excellent “Museums, Monuments, Memory” course. I also appreciate the constructive criticism that I received from audience members when I presented earlier versions of portions of this research at conferences hosted by the South Central Modern Language Association, the Modern Language Association, and the Mnemonics Summer School. v I would like to thank the University of Oklahoma for providing financial support over the course of my studies. The Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate College have each generously funded travel to regional, national, and international conferences, and for this I am grateful. Furthermore, I owe especial thanks to the Provost’s Office for the Nancy L. Mergler Dissertation Completion Fellowship that allowed me to devote undivided attention to my research for a full year. Most especially, I would like to acknowledge the support that I have received from Thomas, James, and Laura. You have seen less of me these last few years than any of us would have liked, and I thank you for your sacrifices while I have finished this degree. Your smiles have buoyed me during difficult times. Any words here are inadequate to describe what you mean to me. I love you. vi Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables .................................................................................................................... x Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xi Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1. Summary of Chapters ............................................................................................... 5 2. Memory Studies ........................................................................................................ 9 2.1 Postmemory ....................................................................................................... 11 2.2. Genre as a Medium of Memory ....................................................................... 13 2.3. Curating Intertexts ............................................................................................ 15 3. Monuments and Countermonuments ...................................................................... 18 4. Textual Countermonuments ................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1. Dora Bruder as Patrick Modiano’s Monument to Filial Guilt ..................... 34 1. The Contested Genre of Dora Bruder .................................................................... 37 2. Dora Bruder and Postmemory ............................................................................... 44 3. The Geography of Memory .................................................................................... 50 3.1 Embedding Legible Traces ............................................................................... 53 3.2 Colonial Connections ........................................................................................ 58 3.3 A Carceral Environment ................................................................................... 61 4. Intertextual Palimpsests .......................................................................................... 63 4.1 Modiano, dix-neuvièmiste? ............................................................................... 66 4.2 Memorializing Dora: A First Attempt ............................................................... 71 5. Memories of the Father .......................................................................................... 81 Chapter 2. Lydie Salvayre’s Pas pleurer: An Aesthetics of Retelling ........................... 93 1. “Un écrivain est une oreille” .................................................................................. 98 1.1 Mother Tongue: Fragnol and Frenchness ......................................................... 99 1.2 Savoring Sounds .............................................................................................. 104 1.3 The Catalonian Catastrophe: “I de-catalanized the book” .............................. 113 2. Salvayre as a Reader: Cultivating the Canon ....................................................... 117 2.1 Literary Legacies: Reviving Bernanos ............................................................ 122 2.2 Mysterious Malraux ........................................................................................ 127 2.3 Mythologizing Courage: Intertextuality Beyond Bernanos and Malraux ....... 131 3. Pas pleurer in the Company of a (Novel’s?) Ghost ............................................. 133 3.1 A Family Romance ......................................................................................... 137 3.2 Surrogate Fathers: Patrie and patrimoine ....................................................... 142 3.3 The Madness of History .................................................................................. 146 4. (Re)Covering Memorials and Texts ....................................................................