"Refigurer le temps humain par le récit" : un espace d'invention auctoriale (à propos Des hommes de Laurent Mauvignier)

Abstract

Decades after Henri Alleg's testimony La Question and Pierre Guyotat's unclassifiable lyrical epic Eden, Eden, Eden, two autobiographies about the Algerian War, were censored, Laurent Mauvignier's Des Hommes was published by Editions de Minuit in 2010 and the press was unanimous in its praise of the novel. Yet, of these three books which all deal with history's identical silences, only one seems to resonate with the current times and be legible. Beyond analysing the relationships between time, memory and narrative, the primary issue is to examine the authorial ethos that orchestrates the narration. What is the position to adopt and the scenario to invent on the writing stage to succeed in "inhabiting the social space" and being granted a place in the repertoire of the common tales of a specific time?

Keywords

• Algerian War
• memory
• story
• tale
• fiction
• ethos