Memory at work in Georges Perec’s Lieux

Mariano D'Ambrosio

Chercheur indépendant , Italy
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6465-5634

Abstract

This article aims to offer an interpretation of Lieux, Georges Perec’s unfinished project published posthumously in 2022, as a pivotal work in the development of his approach to memory, considered both as work and as a call for sharing. At the beginning, a brief history of the project in question will be outlined in order to identify the challenges involved in writing it, understand possible reasons for its abandonment, and answer questions concerning legitimacy of its recent publication in two formats, both as a traditional book and a hypertext. Then, building upon Philippe Lejeune’s work La mémoire et l’oblique, the article will propose an interpretation of Lieux focused on the approaches to memory at work within this text. Perec’s experimental approach towards autobiography, faced with interrogation, trial-and-error exploration, and uncertainties of the author, is reflected in a hybrid, wandering writing, foreshadowing key notions developed in the author’s later projects, such as the multiple, the potential, the call for sharing.

Keywords:

Georges Perec, Lieux, memory, autobiography, unfinished works, posthumous publication, hypertext