L’«inexpiable et sacrilège blessure»

Abstract

The article deals with the representation of the traumatic effects of war on the human psyche outlined in Claude Simon's La Route des Flandres, analyzing the form of the «memory monologue» which leads the whole novel. By isolating its various components, the article frames the restitution of the cognitive activity of the protagonist operated in the text, focusing on the way in which it evokes the inability to construct a discourse on one's memories of the war. The intention is to include this important work of French experimentalism to the debate on the war theme, enhancing its particular degree of realism.