Georges Perec\u2019s postmodern novel W, or the Memory of Childhood <\/i>is a very interesting story about the author\u2019s life in Nazi-occupied France. Other than being a very interesting semi-autobiographical recount of the main character\u2019s memories (or lack thereof), I really enjoyed the concept of duality in the story. The juxtaposition of two parallel narratives was slightly confusing at first. Once I got used to it, though, it really helped me to feel involved and understand the different facets of the main character\u2019s experiences. The distinction between the two narratives is also made very clear by the author\u2019s stylistic choices. What stood out to me was Perec\u2019s skill in portraying past events that actually occurred versus the fantasy world invented by himself as a child. The parts of the novel where he is describing his actual memories are often backed up by evidence. Since the author doesn\u2019t have much recollection of his childhood memories, he resorts to pictures, documents, and factual information to reconstruct his past. When he wrote about W, on the other hand, the narration is a lot freer and less \u201cstrategic\u201d – even though the memories of W are the clearest ones. This reminded me of Aragon\u2019s Paris Peasant<\/i> and how specific accurate details are used in contrast with a surrealist narrative. Although the contrast in Perec\u2019s novel can be interpreted in different ways, I liked the concept of duality as the reader is able to see a bigger picture by looking at two sides of the same story.<\/p>\n
Another aspect I found interesting is the one of translation. We have talked about how translation can be somewhat problematic in literature, and I think the title of this novel can work as a perfect example of that. In French, the title of the novel is W ou le Souvenir d\u2019enfance, <\/i>which is read as \u201cdouble-v\u201d and sounds like \u201cdouble-vie\u201d. When translated to English, the pun doesn’t work and there is no meaning of a \u201cdouble life\u201d expressed in the title, so the translator had to add a paragraph explaining this at the beginning of the book. I think the author\u2019s intention when writing the novel might have been to summarize the essence of the book in its title while also allowing the reader to discover this hidden meaning later. The “organicness” of this author-reader interaction gets lost in translation here, and it\u2019s fascinating to see how the message of literature can altered when works are translated in other languages.<\/p>\n
My question to the class is: what might have pushed Perec to include the \u201cdouble-vie\u201d pun in the title? Was it just a postmodern stylistic choice or is there a particular message that he tries to convey to the reader right from the start?<\/strong><\/p>\n – Bianca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Georges Perec\u2019s postmodern novel W, or the Memory of Childhood is a very interesting story about the author\u2019s life in Nazi-occupied France. Other than being a very interesting semi-autobiographical recount of the main character\u2019s memories (or lack thereof), I really … Continue reading