The curious case of Suite française

Abstract

This thesis will analyse the publication of the English edition of Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite francaise by dissecting the elements of its composition. The key question at the heart of this thesis is to understand how Suite francaise, as a (21st century) publishing product, manages to combine elements of both fiction and history into a unified reading experience. Nemirovsky’s text was written during the Second World War, but was published sixty years later to a post-Holocaust audience, who inevitably view the text in light of what happened to its Jewish author. The published form of the text actively ties the work to its historical predicament, by combining the author’s unfinished fictional manuscript and biographical information side by side. The seamless transition between these sections – which are similar in time and location – provides a multi-layered experience for the reader which blurs the traditional diegetic lines of narrative between fact and fiction.