Abstract
Abstract This article explores the unique dynamics of several recent novels, in which descendants of Holocaust victims investigate their family history: Un secret by Philippe Grimbert, L’Origine de la violence by Fabrice Humbert, and Histoire des grands-parents que je n’ai pas eus by Ivan Jablonka. The article retraces the process by which the narrators, with no testament to guide them, faced with silence and secrecy, and prevented from accessing the truth, are able to invert the intergenerational relationship, and themselves become transmitters of an inheritance they can bequeath to their forefathers by the very act of carrying out their investigation and narrating it into words. This inversion allows the narrators to find their rightful place in the generational chain, in turn giving them the authorial legitimacy they had lacked, and establishing their narratives’ efforts at remembrance as an alternative to the presentism that marks our time.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
