Experience of Reconstruction of the History of One Childhood: P. Modiano’s Novel «Dora Bruder»

Abstract

The article examines the experience of reconstructing a real fate, undertaken in the novel “Dora Bruder” (1997) by the modern French writer Patrick Modiano. The analysis establishes that the lack of documentary information about the life of a Jewish girl who died during the German occupation is filled in the novel with the help of imagination, references to the author’s existential experience, historical and social contexts, and the childhood memories of other people of those times. It is concluded that the reconstruction of Dora Bruder’s childhood and the circumstances of the death of hers actualizes the themes of personal and national history memory in the works of the writer.