- Home

- About

- Login

- Search

- Current

- Archives

- ##Editorial Board##

- ##INDEXING AND ABSTRACTING##

- ##Author's guidelines##

- ##Covered Research Areas##

- ##Related Journals##

- ##MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION##

### HANTISES MÉMORIELLES TRANSATLANTIQUES : FIGURES SPECTRALES ET RÉSILIENCE DANS LES ŒUVRES MORRISIENNES ET GAUDÉENNES / TRANSATLANTIC MEMORIAL HAUNTINGS: SPECTRAL FIGURES AND RESILIENCE IN MORRISIAN AND GAUDÉAN WORKS

### Abstract

La présente étude s’engage dans une exploration approfondie des topographies mémorielles transatlantiques, scrutant avec acuité la manifestation des figures spectrales et les stratégies de résilience déployées face aux séquelles indélébiles du trauma historique dans une sélection d’œuvres de Toni Morrison et de Laurent Gaudé. Chez Morrison, notamment dans le roman magnétique Beloved, le spectre de l’esclavage se matérialise en une présence fantomatique obsédante, cristallisant l’indicible horreur d’un passé qui refuse l’oubli. Corrélativement, chez Gaudé, et singulièrement dans sa poétique de l’anéantissement post-catastrophe de Danser les ombres, les échos des disparus et les vestiges d’un monde révolu imprègnent le présent des survivants, les contraignant à une cohabitation douloureuse avec les limbes du souvenir. Le propos investigatif s’attache à déconstruire les modalités selon lesquelles ces auteurs, ancrés dans des contextes géo-historiques distincts mais confrontés à des formes paradigmatiques de violence et de perte, instrumentalisent la figure spectrale comme un catalyseur narratif et symbolique pour explorer les mécanismes complexes de la résilience individuelle et collective. Si la critique littéraire a abondamment disséqué les thématiques du trauma historique, de la mémoire collective et des stratégies de survie dans les œuvres respectives des deux romanciers, une étude comparée focalisée sur la sémiotique spécifique des figures spectrales comme vecteurs privilégiés de l’expression du trauma et comme moteurs dialectiques de la résilience transcontinentale reste un champ d’investigation fécond. En dépit des exégèses éclairantes, une compréhension synoptique des convergences et des divergences dans la représentation de ces hantises mémorielles et des processus de guérison ou d’adaptation qu’elles engendrent, mérite une élucidation approfondie. Le nœud problématique de cette recherche postule que, malgré leurs ancrages contextuels divergents, les textes de ces deux bêtes de lettres convergent dans leur emploi des figures spectrales comme des manifestations tangibles du trauma historique et comme des catalyseurs essentiels des dynamiques de résilience. Dès lors, une interrogation s’impose avec acuité : Comment les figures spectrales se manifestent-elles et fonctionnent-elles sémiotiquement dans les textes de ces romanciers, et quelles similitudes et dissimilitudes émergent dans leur rôle de catalyseurs de la résilience face aux séquelles persistantes du trauma historique ? L’objectif de cette étude est de décrypter les modalités comparées de la figuration spectrale et leur incidence sur les processus de résilience dans les œuvres soumises à l’étude. La méthodologie privilégiée s’appuie sur une approche comparatiste transculturelle, mobilisant les outils de la psychanalyse littéraire, de la sémiotique, de la thanatologie et des études sur la mémoire traumatique. La pertinence de cette approche réside dans sa capacité à décrypter les mécanismes psychiques et culturels universels qui sous-tendent la confrontation avec la perte et la tentative de reconstruction après un cataclysme historique. L’étude s’articule autour de deux axes fondamentaux : « Typologie et fonction des figures spectrales » et « stratégies de résilience face au spectral ».

The present study undertakes an in-depth exploration of transatlantic memorial topographies, acutely scrutinizing the manifestation of spectral figures and the strategies of resilience deployed in the face of the indelible after-effects of historical trauma in a selection of works by Toni Morrison and Laurent Gaudé. In Morrison’s work, notably in the magnetic novel Beloved, the specter of slavery materializes as a haunting ghostly presence, crystallizing the unspeakable horror of a past that refuses to be forgotten. By the same token, in Gaudé’s Danser les ombres, particularly in his poetics of post-catastrophe annihilation, the echoes of the disappeared and the vestiges of a bygone world permeate the survivors’ present, forcing them into a painful cohabitation with the limbo of memory. The aim of this investigation is to deconstruct the ways in which these authors, rooted in distinct geo-historical contexts but confronted with paradigmatic forms of violence and loss, use the spectral figure as a narrative and symbolic catalyst to explore the complex mechanisms of individual and collective resilience. While literary criticism has extensively dissected the themes of historical trauma, collective memory and survival strategies in the respective works of both novelists, a comparative study focusing on the specific semiotics of spectral figures as privileged vectors for the expression of trauma and as dialectical engines of transcontinental resilience remains a fertile field of investigation. Despite the illuminating exegeses, a synoptic understanding of the convergences and divergences in the representation of these memorial hauntings, and the healing or adaptation processes they engender, merits further elucidation. The core problem of this research is that, despite their divergent contextual anchors, the texts of those beasts of letters converge in their use of spectral figures as tangible manifestations of historical trauma and as essential catalysts of resilience dynamics. How do spectral figures manifest themselves and function semiotically in the texts of those novelists, and what similarities and dissimilarities emerge in their role as catalysts of resilience in the face of the lingering after-effects of historical trauma? The aim of this study is to decipher the comparative modalities of spectral figuration and their impact on resilience processes in the works submitted for study. The methodology adopted is based on a comparative transcultural approach, drawing on the tools of literary psychoanalysis, semiotics, thanatology and studies of traumatic memory. The relevance of this approach lies in its ability to decipher the universal psychic and cultural mechanisms underlying the confrontation with loss and the attempt at reconstruction after a historical cataclysm. The study is structured around two fundamental axes: “Typology and function of spectral figures” and “Resilience strategies in the face of the spectral”.

Article visualizations:

### Keywords

### Full Text:

### References

Abraham, N. & Torok, M. (1978). L’écorce et le noyau. Flammarion. https://editions.flammarion.com/lecorce-et-le-noyau/9782081223844

Appiah, K. A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. W. W. Norton & Company. https://philpapers.org/rec/APPCEI

Beavers, H. (2015). “Across Distances without Recognition: Susceptibility, Immunity, and the Dilemma of Speculative Agency in A Mercy.” In A. A. Kekeh-Dika et al. (Ed.), Toni Morrison: Au-delà du visible ordinaire ; Beyond the Ordinary Visible (85-114). Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 2015. https://books.google.ro/books/about/Toni_Morrison.html?id=xcKfzwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Bergthaller, H. (2006/2007). “Dis(re)membering History’s Revenants: Trauma, Writing, and Simulated Orality in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” Connotations, 16(1-3), 116-136. https://www.connotations.de/article/hannes-bergthaller-disremembering-historys-revenants-trauma-writing-and-simulated-orality-in-toni-morrisons-beloved/

Bernard, I. (2013). “Engagement et mélancolie dans Écoutez nos défaites de Laurent Gaudé.” arcadia, 58(1), 107-125. https://doi.org/10.1515/arcadia-2023-2001

Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and Loss (Vols. 1-3). Basic Books. https://books.google.ro/books/about/Attachment_and_Loss.html?id=4wno8khG0qwC&redir_esc=y

Butler, J. (2009). Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? Verso Books. https://books.google.ro/books/about/Frames_of_War.html?id=ga7hAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Caruth_Wound_and_Voice.pdf

Crombet, H. (2018). “Fiction panoramique et enjeux narratifs : la précarité du récit de l’événement historique dans Ouragan de Laurent Gaudé (2010).” Analyses Revue de littératures franco-canadiennes et québécoise, 13(2), 130-137. https://doi.org/10.18192/analyses.v13i2.3627

Felman, S. & Laub, D. (1992). Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Testimony-Crises-of-Witnessing-in-Literature-Psychoanalysis-and-History/Felman-Laub/p/book/9780415903929?srsltid=AfmBOoqw_xM6S82Eij7T_spHNdahSA0p4FVhul7MxxY16ZOU-7hKgs8k

Frankl, V. E. (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press. https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mans-search-for-meaning.pdf

Freud, S. (1999). L’interprétation des rêves. Presses Universitaires de France. https://classiques.uqam.ca/collection_methodologie/freud_sigmund/freud_expression_du_moi/freud_expression_du_moi_texte.html

Gaudé, L. (2008). Danser les ombres. Actes Sud. https://actes-sud.fr/danser-les-ombres

Hammoud, F. (2023). “La narration polyphonique de la catastrophe dans Ouragan de Laurent Gaudé.” Cahiers de Narratologie, 44. https://doi.org/10.4000/narratologie.14669

Henderson, M. G. (1990). “Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Re-Membering the Body as Historical Text.” In H. L. Gates Jr. (Ed.), Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology (62-86). Meridian Books. https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/reading-black-reading-feminist-9780452010451

Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-30136-000

Hirsch, Marianne. (2012). The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust. Columbia University Press. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-generation-of-postmemory/9780231156523/

Horvitz, D. (1997). “Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Repossession in Beloved.” Studies in American Fiction, 25(2), 167-184. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/760795/pdf

Kekeh-Dika, A.-A. (2015). “La vérité sans apprêt ou les pouvoirs de l’ordinaire.” In A. A. Kekeh-Dika et al. (Ed.), Toni Morrison: Au-delà du visible ordinaire ; Beyond the Ordinary Visible (17-30). Presses Universitaires de Vincennes. https://books.google.ro/books/about/Toni_Morrison.html?id=xcKfzwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Lifton, R. J. (1979). The Broken Connection: On Death and the Continuity of Life. Simon and Schuster. https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Broken_Connection.html?id=Du2ogOMSdoAC&redir_esc=y

Morrison, T. (1987). Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2904002

Norris, F. H., et al. (2008). “Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness.” American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(1-2), 127-150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9156-6

Obiang Nguema, D. (2019). “Migration environnementale et migration mémorielle à travers Ouragan de Laurent Gaudé.” Les chantiers de la création, 11, 1-83. https://doi.org/10.4000/lcc.1454

Pennebaker, J. W. (1990). Opening up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions. The Guilford Press. https://books.google.ro/books/about/Opening_Up.html?id=U2doiTNg134C&redir_esc=y

Ricoeur, P. (2000). La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli. Éditions du Seuil, 2000. https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_2002_num_57_1_280038_t1_0242_0000_2

Rothberg, M. (2009). Multidirectional memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Stanford University Press. https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/multidirectional-memory

Rushdy, A. H. A. (1999). Neo-slave narratives: Studies in the Economy, Politics, and Ideology of Telling the Tale. Oxford University Press.

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking. https://ia601604.us.archive.org/35/items/the-body-keeps-the-score-pdf/The-Body-Keeps-the-Score-PDF.pdf

Walter, T. (1999). On Bereavement: The Culture of Grief. Open University Press. https://books.google.ro/books/about/On_Bereavement.html?id=jDHaAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Wellek, R. & Warren, A. (1949). Theory of Literature. Harcourt, Brace. https://archive.org/details/theoryofliteratu00inwell/page/n5/mode/2up

### Refbacks

- There are currently no refbacks.

Copyright © 2020-2026. European Journal of Multilingualism and Translation Studies (ISSN 2734 - 5475 / ISSN-L 2734 - 5475). All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.