Le « moi » et la mémoire de la souffrance extrême

Abstract

“The self and the memory of extreme suffering”. To give testimony of a crime’s extreme suffering such as genocide is a duty: one of the survivors’ memory to those who are gone. However, speaking about it is a disturbing experience, in whichever way – autobiography, self-fictional or another. It first distresses the author, who is forced to “relive” the suffering by remembering it, and it then distresses the reader, however insensitive they might be.Focussing on some accounts of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, our reflection aims at questioning the possibility of an objective account when memory stems from extreme violence, suffered or inflicted, and for which both victims and authors cannot find an explanation. We will then deal with the actual consequences of these memories, not just for those who survived but also for the victims’ descendants, both dead or alive. Finally, we will question the reason for preserving memories of this kind.

Keywords

• memory
•  narrative
•  genocide
•  survivor
•  forgive