WOMEN'S REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OCCUPATION IN POST-'68 FRANCE

WOMEN'S REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OCCUPATION IN POST-'68 FRANCE

Also by Claire Gorrara EUROPEAN MEMORIES OF TIlE SECOND WORLD WAR: New Perspectives on Postwar Literature (editor with H. Peitsch and C. Burdett)

Women's Representations of the Occupation in Post-'68 France Claire Gorrara Lecturer School of European Studies University of Wales Cardiff

First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-26463-6 ISBN 978-1-349-26461-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26461-2 First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21255-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gorrara, Claire. Women's representations of the occupation in Post-'68 France I Claire Gorrara. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-21255-1 (cloth) I. France-History-German occupation, 1940-1945. 2. World War, 1939-1 945-Underground movements-france. 3. French literature -Women authors. I. Title. D802.F8G68 1998 843'.91 409358-dc2 I 97-38684 CIP Claire Gorrara 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1998 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98

Contents Preface vi Introduction 1 Part I The Women Resisters 7 1 Remembering the War Years 9 2 Resistance Voices: the Case of Lucie Aubrac 25 3 Gender and Genre: Maurice, Moret and Duras 43 4 A Feminist Rereading: Clara Malraux 61 Part II The Daughters of the Occupation 75 5 The Daughters of the Resistance: Gatard and Albrecht 77 6 The Daughters of Collaboration: Chaix and Le Garrec 91 7 The Daughters of Persecution: Jewish Children 109 Remember Conclusion 130 Notes 132 Select Bibliography 150 Index 158 v

Preface This book began with an undergraduate course at the University of Leeds on representations of the Occupation in French literature. My subsequent enthusiasm for the period and issues surrounding gender, representation and narrative was developed during my research work at Oxford University. I therefore owe much to my undergraduate and postgraduate supervisors, Margaret Atack and Colin Davis. Without their comments and constructive criticism, as well as their encouragement, this book would not have been possible. I would especially like to thank Margaret Atack whose own work in the field has been an inspiration and who has patiently read through draft chapters of this book at short notice, always providing insightful advice and recommendations. Earlier versions of parts of this book have previously appeared in print. A discussion of gendered readings of Lucie Aubrac's Ils partiront dans l'ivresse from Chapter 2 has appeared as 'Reviewing Gender and the Resistance: the Case of Lucie Aubrac' in The Liberation of France: Image and Event (Oxford: Berg, 1995) 143-53. Chapter 3, on feminist readings of Clara Malraux, has appeared in a modified form as 'Feminist Rereadings of the War Years: the Case of Clara Malraux', in French Cultural Studies, 7 (February 1996) 63-76, while a comparison of notions of memory and the self in Lucie Aubrac's text and Dominique Garnier's Nice pour memoire, discussed in Chapter 7, has appeared as 'Writing and Memory: the Occupation and the Construction of the Self in 1980s French Literature' in Modern and Contemporary France, 5/1 (February 1997) 35-45. Aspects of my analysis of the texts by Marie Chaix and Evelyne Le Garrec in Chapter 6 are shortly to appear as 'Remembering the Collaborating Father: Marie Chaix's Les Lauriers du lac de Constance and Evelyne Le Garrec's La Rive allemande de ma memoire' in European Memories of the Second World War: New Perspectives on Post-war Literature, C. Burdett, C. Gorrara and H. Peitsch (eds), forthcoming from Berghahn Books. Permission to reprint is gratefully acknowledged. Throughout where no English-language translation of a text is cited as the source, translations from French texts are my own. I would like to thank those colleagues and friends who have vi

Preface vii helped in the writing of this book. Firstly, Helmut Peitsch and Charles Burdett from the University of Wales Cardiff, who have provided enlightening conversation and important feedback as I developed ideas and theoretical approaches for this book. I would like to thank Helmut Peitsch in particular who, with his love of European literature and readiness to read material with great alacrity and enthusiasm, has been of invaluable help in this project. I would also like to thank colleagues elsewhere who have been influential for my work and thinking and given me the support and the opportunity to talk about my ideas: Elizabeth Fallaize, Rod Kedward, Martin Grisel, Solange Pierrat-Dane, Hanna Diamond and the women involved in the Women in French network, many of whom are role models for the ways in which they combine excellent academic work and home commitments. Thanks go also to Lucie Aubrac and Evelyne Le Garrec who agreed to be interviewed, bringing the period alive for me and the issues concerned with writing, gender and representation. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents and sister for their support for my work and career to date. I dedicate this book to them. CG.