A Study Of Trauma Writing In Modiano's Novels

Patrick Modiano is a great French writer.With his unique writing of identity and memory,Modiano has made great achievements in the history of French literature.The study of Modiano's novels reached its climax after he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2014.Many researchers have paid attention to the influence of Modiano's traumatic experience on the themes of “identity” and “memory” in his novels,but they haven't formed a systematic discussion and interpretation.The trauma writing of Modiano's novels contains not only the trauma experience of Modiano,but also the trauma of the second world war and the historical trauma of the Jewish nation.By studying the trauma writing of Modiano's novels,we can discover the reasons for Modiano's themes of "identity" and "memory",and further explore his deeper spiritual world.The trauma writing in Modiano's novels is not only the recurrence and remembrance of the suffering,but also a profound reflection on the destiny of human beings.Therefore,the trauma writing of Modiano's novels has the certain value of research and academic.This paper covers three parts:The first part introduces the development of trauma writing theory and the trauma experience of Modiano.The theory of trauma derives from clinical medicine and modern psychology in the west in the 19 th century.After the development of Freud and other theorists,the “trauma theory” expanded into the field of culture in the 20 th century gradually,which opened up the way for the trauma writing.There are three main sources of Modiano's traumatic experience,which are his personal traumatic experience of his broken family and childhood,the traumatic experience of the German's occupation of France in the second world war,which was buried by his elder generation,and the traumatic experience of the collective unconscious of the Jewish nation.Modiano's traumatic experience is the reason of his trauma writing,which is repeatedly presented in his novels.The second part introduces the textual presentation of Modiano's trauma writing.The trauma writing in Modiano's novels comes from his experience of trauma.Thus,this part focus on the analysis of Modiano's novels,aiming to explore the writing of his family trauma,the historical trauma of the Jewish nation and the cultural trauma of humanity.Modiano's novels reveal the causes of trauma and show the injuries and influences caused by trauma through the writing of characters' trauma.The trauma writing of Modiano's novels not only inscribes his personal family trauma experience into the Jewish national historical trauma experience,but also develops the vision of the writing of human cultural trauma,which symbolizes transcendental significance.The third part discusses the trauma treatment strategy of Modiano's novels.This part is divided into three aspects,which are the treatment methods,the treatment process and the treatment significance of Modiano's novels.The trauma writing in Modiano's novels is characterized by self-fiction and intertextuality,which tries healing itself.Modiano think that the way to resist the trauma is the “memory”.In the process of treatment,Modiano resists forgetting with the memory and seeks a way out by pursuing the Ariadne line and the line of flight.Although the blankness of Modiano's text makes it impossible for readers to confirm whether the trauma is cured or not,his attempt at trauma treatment not only makes him self-salvation,but also makes the French reflect on the history of the second world war and the Jewish nation reflect on its own nationality.Furthermore,it even causes the reflection on the alienation of modern society and the absurd situation of humanity.Based on Modiano's trauma writing,this paper attempts to sort out the trauma writing in Modiano's novels,aiming to explore the reasons for the trauma writing in Modiano's novels,the way and significance of text presentation,as well as how to achieve the treatment of trauma,so as to make a systematic explanation of the trauma writing in Modiano's novels.