Table Of ContentSubjects of History: Identity and Memory in the First Person Narratives of Patrick
Modiano, Assia Djebar, and Hervé Guibert
by
Vanessa Doriott Anderson
Department of Romance Studies
Duke University
Date:_______________________
Approved:
___________________________
Alice Kaplan, Supervisor
___________________________
David Bell
___________________________
Roberto Dainotto
___________________________
Laurent Dubois
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of
Romance Studies in the Graduate School
of Duke University
2012
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ABSTRACT
Subjects of History: Identity and Memory in the First Person Narratives of Patrick
Modiano, Assia Djebar, and Hervé Guibert
by
Vanessa Doriott Anderson
Department of Romance Studies
Duke University
Date:_______________________
Approved:
___________________________
Alice Kaplan, Supervisor
___________________________
David Bell
___________________________
Roberto Dainotto
___________________________
Laurent Dubois
An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of
Romance Studies in the Graduate School
of Duke University
2012
Copyright by
Vanessa Doriott Anderson
2012
Abstract
In the wake of a twentieth century marked by the Occupation, the Algerian War,
the AIDS crisis, and the aftermath of these events, the debates surrounding French
identity have acquired particular urgency. French novelists, meanwhile, have
increasingly turned to first person narratives; autobiographies and especially
autofictions continue to dominate current publication lists. Equally concerned with
identity questions, these same texts have often been accused of solipsism, and their
authors described as narcissists of little talent. In this dissertation, I argue that the
debates surrounding national identity and the problematic construction of a written
personal identity are, in fact, intimately related. I analyze a variety of first person
narrative works by three major contemporary authors (Patrick Modiano, Assia Djebar,
and Hervé Guibert) in order to resituate these purportedly personal critiques of
“Frenchness” within an evolving historical and historiographical trajectory that informs
national, community, and personal identity. In so doing, I suggest the ways in which
both subjects and identities are constructed (and critiqued) textually with respect to a
history of traumatic events, as well as the collective memories that those events inspire. I
argue that Modiano’s contemporary evocations of Occupation-era France, Djebar’s
complex and shifting assessment of the Algerian War and the legacies of French
colonization in Algeria, and the dominant position occupied by Hervé Guibert’s AIDS
writings in relationship to the rest of his prolific production all merit reexamination. I
therefore seek to analyze the fraught construction of identity in a French society marked
by its shifting relationship to history as memorialization, while complicating the
generalizations that often result from identity-based scholarship. The novel
juxtaposition of Modiano, Djebar, and Guibert within the dissertation enacts my desire
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to challenge the limits posed by reading authors solely in the light of narrowly-defined
identity politics.
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Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................viii
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
French Identity, in Continuity and Crisis ........................................................................... 2
Painful Pasts .......................................................................................................................... 10
The Scandalous Singularity of the Autobiographical Subject........................................ 15
About the Authors................................................................................................................ 21
1. A Subject in Search of an Identity: Patrick Modiano’s Postwar Narratives of Loss ..... 27
Singular Subject, Collective Memory................................................................................. 32
In the Name of the Father.................................................................................................... 33
Being “Like” .......................................................................................................................... 39
Collective Amnesia............................................................................................................... 54
Postwar Proust ...................................................................................................................... 63
2. Writing Between the Lines: Assia Djebar’s Subjective History........................................ 70
The Art of Representing Exception.................................................................................... 75
“Regard interdit; son coupé”: The Foundations of a Situated Historical Narrative .. 87
L’amour, la fantasia: Toward a Subjective History ............................................................ 95
A Dialogue with Fanon...................................................................................................... 103
3. How to Have Literature in an Epidemic: Hervé Guibert and the Imperatives of AIDS
Representation........................................................................................................................... 116
Mes parents, or Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man................................................... 121
Image Makers: Hervé Guibert and Cyril Collard .......................................................... 137
A l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie, or Portrait of the Artist as a Dying Man................ 152
Conclusions................................................................................................................................ 162
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Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 170
Biography ................................................................................................................................... 180
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Acknowledgements
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my advisor, Alice Kaplan, whose patient
mentoring and wise insight have helped me grow personally and professionally. She has
been a constant guide, somehow always making me feel that I had her full attention and
support, whatever the geographic distance or other demands on her time. Her advice
has been absolutely priceless. It is an honor to have been her student. I am also deeply
grateful to the members of my dissertation committee, David Bell, Roberto Dainotto, and
Laurent Dubois, for their incisive comments, advice, and support throughout my
graduate studies. In France, Dominique Rabaté has been exceptionally generous with his
time and knowledge. I feel lucky to be surrounded by so many brilliant people, whom I
respect and admire so much.
Duke’s Department of Romance Studies has been very generous to me, allowing
me to teach two literature courses related to my dissertation and supporting my work in
so many tangible and intangible ways. My thanks to the faculty, especially Michèle
Longino, Anne-Gaëlle Saliot, Helen Solterer, and Clare Tufts. This project has received
additional support in the form of fellowships from the Duke Graduate School as well as
the Embassy of France, for which I am truly grateful. I am indebted to the librarians at
the IMEC in Caen, France, for their patient assistance during my archival research.
Special thanks to Christine Guibert for allowing me to consult these archives.
Françoise Denis, Nick Dobelbower, and Diane Brown planted the seeds for this
project when I was still an undergraduate at Macalester. They helped me discover my
great intellectual passions, and remain my role models for inspired teaching and
mentoring. The faculty at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities helped me become a
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more competent and thoughtful scholar. Special thanks to Dan Brewer, Mária Brewer,
Bruno Chaouat, Juliette Cherbuliez, Ron Greene, Judith Preckshot, and Eileen Sivert.
My diss-pote, Nichole Gleisner, bravely battled her way through previous
versions of this manuscript. I am grateful for her always-insightful readings. The Djebar
and Guibert chapters also benefited tremendously from the helpful questions posed by
audiences at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the
University of Texas at Austin. I would like to thank all of my students, who have been
invaluable interlocutors throughout the life of this project. Special thanks to Sofía
Becerra, who is an extraordinarily perceptive and intellectually curious student of
literature, as well as a wonderfully skeptical critic.
I could not have pursued my intellectual dreams without the lifelong support of
family and the more recent, but equally treasured encouragement of dear friends,
including Nicolas and Élodie Di Méo, Debbie Hill, Julia Mack, and Lauren and Justin
Roper. My faithful canine companion, Bruno Howard, has kept my feet warm and my
spirits up. The Anderson-Strickland family, especially Ann Anderson and Betty
Anderson-Strickland, have welcomed me into their fold from the beginning and cheered
me on the whole way. I am fortunate to be able to claim them as my own. My extended
family of aunts, uncles, and cousins has provided me with much emotional support. My
parents, Jim and Linda Doriott, and grandparents, Arden and Olga Larson, are the
satellites in my life. Their choices made it possible for me to live my dreams. They
remind me not to take myself too seriously (and not to brag or I won’t have any friends –
thanks, Mom). Saying that I love and appreciate them barely scratches the surface.
My husband, John, has patiently endured the most frustrating challenges
associated with this project and celebrated its most exhilarating moments. He has
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accompanied it, and me, across continents and through the years. He is my most trusted
critic, confidant, and friend. I want to thank him for living this adventure with me.
These pages are for him.
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