On The Theme Of ’identity’ In The Novels Of Patrick Modiano

Recently, identity has become the hot topic of literature, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Research on identity in literary works mainly took gender, post-colonialism, nationality, race and cross-nationality as starting point to discuss identity, identification and identity construction. It is well known that Patrick Modiano won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature. Three key words, namely,’identity’,’memory’,’history’, can help readers understand his works. This paper starts with ’identity’ and offers an analysis of the identity status of the characters in his work so as to expound on the living circumstances of individuals.In addition to the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis is divided into three chapters. To be specific, the first chapter discusses the loss of figures’ identities in Patrick Modiano’s novel, which is embodied in changes of the names, addresses and occupations of individual figures. It also analyses the truth of the loss of individual subjectivity. In fact, Modiano’upbringing, the turbulent era, and crisis in belief are closely related to the loss of the figure’s identities. Chapter two tends to analyze the bases of identity existence, including motherland, nation, father and past. As their country was devastated by the war, the Jewish people could not escape from the destiny of vagrancy. At the same time, the absence of’father’that symbolized the spiritual foundation forced the protagonist to pin his hope on the past, while reminiscence about the past relying on memory, amnesia, deliberate oblivion and unconscious oblivion fills the memory with uncertainties; besides, the miscellaneous details and obscure time have fragmented memories; the spatial space, such as buildings will gradually vanish along with the elapse of time. In this case, the figure is eager to trace his roots by reconstructing time and shaping memories, however, the status quo of identity loss still exists after this Sisyphean effort. Chapter three mainly discusses the ’Beach Man’ in different types of meaning, showing the individuals’ tragedy of human life and crisis of spiritual world after failing to find the sense of being. By investigating the ’terror, escaping and loneliness’ of the ’Beach Man’, the paper is aimed at illuminating the implied meaning that modern people have lost their sense of existence.