Abstract：Under the guidance of Pierre Nora, the French historian, the three-volume work Les Lieux de Mémoire (Realms of Memory) was compiled and completed in 1984. Since then, memory studies have triggered the Memory Turn in history circles, and even in the humanities and social sciences in the second half of the 20th century, and memory studies have also provided a new perspective and a new method for exploring French literature.
First, the concept of “memory poetics” can be put forward by tracing the basic concepts of “memory” and “poetics” to their origins. “Memory poetics” takes literary texts with memory writing characteristics as its object and focuses on the systematic study of memory writing’s artistic forms, narrative strategies, thematic intentions, and humanistic values.
Second, based on this concept, a typological analysis of memory writings in French literature since the 20th century can be undertaken: Marcel Proust induces “poetic memory of sensations” through sensory stimuli; Louis-Ferdinand Céline uses a colloquial, ironic and black humor style to carry out “carnival memory with the consciousness of appreciation of ugliness”; Michel Butor reflects on urban changes with the “artistic memory with conscious reconstruction”; Alain Robbe-Grillet collages and rearranges past events to create dynamic “hybrid memory of autobiography”; Jean-Marie Le Clézio constructs “Epic Memory in generative and developmental mode” to reconstruct home and self; and Patrick Modiano shapes a “déjà-vu memory in a detective style” to evoke the most ungraspable human destinies. This group of representative figures promotes the transformation of memory writing’s form, and also constructs a large-scale, vivid image of memory poetics.
Third, by delving deeper into the texts and reading them closely, one can realize that the French literary memory writing is either based on one’s own story and subjective experience to carry out self-fictional memories, or combines family members, historical figures, marginalized individuals, or social cases, collective events, literary materials with imagination, fiction, subjective emotions, hallucinations and dreams to create mixed memories of reality and fiction, which connects literary creation and the exploration of identity, world history, and human destiny.
Finally, this paper, exploring the artistic forms, subjects, themes, gist, development contexts and future trends of French literary memory writing, can provide a theoretical reference for the creation, criticism, and dialogue of world literature. Literary memory, like a kind of literary ceremony, enables the French to participate in building a collective cultural memory, enabling them to carry out the construction of a French national culture and identity, and thus establishes the French nation with strong cohesion and centripetal force. It can be seen as a solid foundation of French cultural soft power; thus, it can also be regarded as an extremely important reference and inspiration for China, which advocates for “Chinese culture going global” and promotes “mutual learning among civilizations”.
翁冰莹. 试论20世纪以降法国文学中的记忆诗学[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 0, (): 1-.
Weng Bingying. Memory Poetics in French Literature since the 20th Century. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 0, (): 1-.
