UDC

821.133.1(091)

Authors

Elena G. Baranova
Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod; ul. Minina 31, korp. 1, Nizhny Novgorod, 603155, Russian Federation; e-mail: letterale@yandex.ru

Abstract

In France, World War I is a major element of national memory and an important theme in French literature. Taking J. Rouaud’s Fields of Glory (Les Champs d’honneur), S. Japrisot’s A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) and P. Lemaitre’s A Great Swindle (Au revoir là-haut) as an example, the paper identifies some features specific of contemporary French prose about the Great War. Unlike the classical trench literature, the narration focuses not on the war itself, but on the destruction of the characters’ identity and on the memory as the only way to reconstruct it. One can lose his identity both on the physical (body changes) and on the personal (loss of name, memory and critical thinking) levels. Not even death can stop this loss of identity. In all three novels, this motif is closely associated with the motif of memory. The characters’ lost identity can only be regained if they are remembered by their families. The new hero of contemporary war novels is typically a weak and suffering person, often a deserter, whose main battle is not with the enemy, but with his own destiny. This trend is considered to be part of the general process described in P. Nora’s Realms of Memory. The importance of the individual memory of war, official realms of memory desacralized and subjective testimonies rated more and more highly – all these characteristics of contemporary World War I narratives are attributes of the French national identity crisis. The novels under study reflect the actual situation in which, according to P. Nora, memory-history is replaced by man-history and secondary memory is generated.

Keywords

World War I, contemporary French prose, J. Rouaud, S. Japrisot, P. Lemaitre, identity crisis, loss of identity motif, memory motif

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