« Suivre le fil de la blessure » : Poétique des voix et corporalité de la mémoire dans Loin d’eux de Laurent Mauvignier et Thésée, sa vie nouvelle de Camille de Toledo

Abstract

Following the (wounded) memory lane: poetics of voices and corporeal memory in Laurent Mauvignier’s Loin d’eux and Camille de Toledo’s Thésée, sa vie nouvelle This is a study of the novel Loin d'eux by Laurent Mauvignier (1999) and Thésée, sa vie nouvelle by Camille de Toledo (2020). Through these two works, this article examines how the modalities of a survival of memory and of the traumatic memorial image are inscribed in the body and mind and how the narrative and scriptural forms resonate with them. I will first analyze how Mauvignier's writing of the wound meets inhibited speech and silence, suggesting in solitary subjects the failure for a shared language. I will then question in de Toledo's text how the relationship to a painful bodymemory proceeds from an inscription in the present, an awareness of a memorial corporality and a desire to “survive with”. Both these texts respectively give us pause to reflect on how the memory trace is apprehended through the power of speaking and listening.