Manger des madeleines : La représentation de la mère dans La chambre claire de Roland Barthes et W ou le souvenir d’enfance de Georges Perec

Abstract

This thesis analyses two texts in which the authors try to represent their mother: La chambre claire (1980) by Roland Barthes and W ou le souvenir d’enfance (1975) by Georges Perec. Both writers have difficulties bringing back memories of their mother and writing them down. As a consequence, the figure of the mother is represented in other ways. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse in which ways she is represented. It looks at different methods of recalling memories: Proust’s madeleine, psychoanalysis and photography. In his essay on photography, Barthes establishes a parallel between photography and the mother: both give birth, reproduce. The notion of the umbilical cord also takes an important place in his text. In Perec’s autobiographical novel, conscious memories are either absent, rewritten or invented. This void is filled by the fantasy W and by the corporal remembrance of the mother: both shared a preference for the bodily left.