Narrating the trauma: Georges Perec’s W ou le souvenir d’enfance

Abstract

At first sight, George Perec’s W ou le souvenir d’enfance (1975) is a hybrid book of fiction and nonfiction, where every odd-numbered chapter is fiction, and every even-numbered one is autobiography. However, on a closer look, it becomes evident that both stories are linked to a real historical event: to the disappearance of the author’s mother in Auschwitz.