Histoire individuelle, histoire collective dans deux romans de Sylvie Germain

Magnus, in the eponymous novel, and Pierre, in L'Inapercu, are two characters whose identities have been disrupted by the events of the Second World War. The rebuilding process of their identities requires that their bounds with History come loose in order to attain the freedom that will enable them to write down their personal stories. This article tackles first the way historical material and fiction hang together, before exploring the different modes of this interaction. The historical landmarks fulfil two functions: to engrave the events on our memory and to support the progress of the plot by embodying the weight of fate on individual. Writing a fiction allows the brining of the anonyms to life and favours an intuitive approach of History. Thus, it highlights the synergy between inherited history and history of the world. The family echoes and amplifies the convulsions of the history of the world, which, in return, nourishes itself from empathies and tensions between family members. Magnus places side by side different text modalities: informative, poetic, narrative. This polyphonic structure enhances the organisational function of writing when it comes to conjure up souvenirs. Completing this memory exercise enables to go beyond the antagonism between a being and the events that have hurt him. The individual finds again a meaning to History, and to his story, setting his existence according to the geological origins of the world. Reconciled with his past, he can project himself in the future with serenity.