The Research Of Trauma Writing In Modiano’s Novels

In recent years,the topic of trauma has become a hot topic in literary research,with research using trauma writing and narrative as keywords gradually emerging.The study of trauma writing based on the author’s experience and literary creation is a rich attempt of trauma theory in the field of literature.Literary trauma writing is the exploration of trauma patterns embedded in literary works,the process of narrative and retrospective trauma by the affected subject,and an important medium for interaction and communication between the author and readers.The word "trauma" has gradually developed from the original medical terminology into a relatively complete theoretical system,and then gradually entered the cultural field,thus laying a foundation for trauma writing based on literary texts.Trauma writing can enable the injured to explore the corresponding trauma mechanism in the process of reviving and reviewing the trauma experience and trauma events,and make it possible to heal the psychological "wound" of the injured by presenting and describing the trauma.Patrick Modiano(1945-),as a postmodernist writer,broke the conventional narrative paradigm and revealed the psychological trauma caused by traumatic events through the text,while the writer’s personal trauma experience cultivated the soil for his literary trauma book writing and was able to see traces in his works.His early works such as "Star Square","Night Tour" and later published "Family Tree" and "Youth Cafe" contain the trauma of different dimensions of family,nation and country.The affected objects include individuals and groups.The two are not completely different,but reflect each other,with profound historical implications and identity implications.For a wounded individual,traumatic memory is private,but for a group or country,the construction of traumatic memory is of social and collective significance.The writing of historical memories such as the Second World War and the Holocaust in Mo’s works is conducive to the rationalization of traumatic memory and the reconstruction of social collective identity.This thesis adopts the methods of text close reading and document analysis,under the framework of trauma theory of Kathy Carus,Judith Herman and Dominique Lacapura,and combines the relevant concepts of the author’s personal experience and memory research,to analyze and study Modiano’s literary works in detail,and explore the identity crisis and survival dilemma faced by individuals and groups in different trauma contexts,It alludes to the atrocities of the German Nazis in the Second World War and the contradictions and conflicts within the French state,revealing the historical truth and traumatic memory hidden under the text.The paper is mainly divided into three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction first briefly introduces Patrick Modiano’s life and his literary creation,summarizes the research status of his works at home and abroad,and explains the current academic research on Modiano’s novels by combing and integrating relevant documents and materials.Secondly,it briefly summarizes the evolution track of trauma theory,mainly including the classical trauma theory represented by Freud and the contemporary trauma theory rising in the United States in the 1990 s,and ponders and questions the significance and value of literary trauma writing.Finally,the significance and value of the topic selection are expounded.The conclusion part is the review and prospect of the research content of this paper.The main part of the thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter discusses the crisis of individual self-construction in the context of family trauma,and believes that there are different forms of family trauma in Modiano’s novels.The individuals living under this trauma are faced with the dilemma that it is difficult to construct their own identity,which is specifically manifested in the weakening,splitting and doubt of themselves,thus revealing the wandering state of the rootless individuals who have lost their homes.While describing the impact of family trauma patterns on individual shaping,the author also did not ignore the external impact of the family as a basic social unit,and then metaphorically used different images to describe the survival situation of the injured subject.Finally,take care of the individual in the family trauma,and explore the self-healing methods adopted by the individual trying to get out of the family trauma in the text.The second chapter analyzes the collective trauma suffered by the Jewish nation,presenting the trauma symptoms of the Jewish nation under the shadow of the genocide,and the victims show abnormal reactions such as fear,nightmares,flashbacks and so on.At the same time,focusing on the problems of the loss of the homeland,the lack of identity and the survival anxiety faced by the Jewish nation during the World War II,the author believes that the Jews during the Holocaust showed two extremely opposite faces of assimilation and revenge,and tries to further explore the collective trauma history of the Jewish nation through individual trauma representation,and explains the national identity crisis under racial prejudice and the survival anxiety after the failure of root-seeking,Exposed the vague and contradictory national consciousness of the Jewish collective.The third chapter examines the multidimensional overlap of individual destiny and collective memory under the control of the discourse of state power,and reveals the real dilemma of the loss of the status of the main body of the state caused by the division of the French regime during the occupation period by building a contradictory geographical space to indicate the split of the French national identity.In the form of literary text,the writer re-written the historical truth that was covered by the mainstream history,and reappeared the national traumatic memory hidden under the scar.At the same time,it pays attention to the dilemma faced by marginal individuals in the context of national trauma,transcends individual trauma to write national collective trauma,and examines and questions the identity loss and survival status of individuals and collectives under the ambiguities of moral ethics.