“La simultanéité du présent”: Memory, History, and Narrative in Andreï Makine’s Novels Le Testament français and Requiem pour l’Est

Abstract

This article examines the theme of memory in Andrei Makine’s novels Le testament francais (1995) and Requiem pour l’Est (2000). Drawing upon Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenology of memory in La memoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000), the article identifies two distinct modes of memory reflected in the novels. The first mode entails a conscious attempt to remember a past event; the second mode comprises a narrative evocation of the past. The article argues that in depicting different modes of remembrance, the novels privilege intersubjective, narrated memory, representing it as capable, when coupled with imagination and aesthetic experience, of recreating the past.