Buried within Sites And Sediments: The Relationship of Memory And Place in Georges Perec's W Or The Memory of Childhood And Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces

Abstract

This paper illustrates the ways Georges Perec's W or the Memory of Childhood and Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces unravel the implicit links between place and memory. As Perec portrays the biography of a character whose childhood memories are distorted by the catastrophe of Holocaust, Michaels; on the other hand, depicts the experience of the lack of memory of the survivors of Holocaust extended to the next generations. In their narratives, both writers attempt to unfold the essence of the unfolding relationship between memory and place and the ways it contributes to the main characters' pasts, and thus, to their identities. By relying on a number of theoretical frames related to memory studies such as Nicola King (2000) and Simon Schama (1996), the paper argues that the protagonists of the selected novels come to a better understanding of themselves, relying on several places and sites in reconstructing their memories. This research investigates the relationship between memory and place to elaborate on the key roles of the place in conceiving and revealing the buried memories in the two novels