In defiance of genre: The language of Patrick Modiano’s Dora Bruder project

Abstract

Dora Bruder, unique to Patrick Modiano’s literary repertoire, remains unclassifiable with respect to genre due to its constant oscillation between fiction, biography and autobiography. The publication of an English translation has further complicated the task of classification.While some scholars persist in their usage of the term ‘autofiction’ to describe this work, Modiano’s reliance on visual elements such as photography and maps suggests that Dora Bruder would be more aptly classified as an instance of second-generation Holocaust ekphrasis. It is my contention that strict textual analyses that ignore Dora Bruder’s distinctive publication history fail to grasp not only the work’s defining image—text dynamic, but also its continued existence as a work in progress. The current analysis therefore proposes a new reading of Dora Bruder in an attempt to reach beyond the Western conception of canonical literature and to better understand Modiano’s Dora Bruder project.