Event Title
2B2: “Pour la France ! Pour ma famille!”: Haunting War Legacies in Rouaud’s Champs d’honneurs
Start Date
29-9-2018 10:15 AM
End Date
29-9-2018 11:15 AM
Description
The unexpected long “Grande Guerre” rages like a wildfire in the hearts of the French much like for other European nations. Heavy propaganda to rally money, to motivate the troops, or even to ration food barely translate the horrors to the trenches. The animosity between the French and German forces has been festering for almost a century. In a historic retrospective, it comes to no surprise that the conflict resurfaces so close to the last Franco Prussian war of 1871, some of course regarding the Alsace-Lorraine territory that has been caught between the two powerful nations. Armed to fighting not only to win the war but to win their respective honors, this battle ranged beyond the four bloody years and stretches out to WW2 where it fuels more violence. Violence which is passed on from father to son, generation after generation.
In the 21st century, we still have numerous reminders of how deep that conflict ran a century ago and how it still festers in the collective memory. Jean Rouaud’s literary work, starting with Les Champs d’honneur (in English Fields of Glory) illustrates that point by building a family genealogy whose legacy is deeply traumatized by the presence of WW1. The death of three family members offers an introspective gaze at the brutality endured during the war eras, both WW1 and WW2, with at its center the author’s grandfather and the repercussions of his absence, his return and his tragic trauma on the remaining family members. Rouaud’s work offers a kaleidoscopic representation of traditions and legacies that has been heavily burdened by the horrors of the trenches, altering good men to become a shell of their former selves and to be carried generations later in the hopes to be carried out of the fields of glory.
2B2: “Pour la France ! Pour ma famille!”: Haunting War Legacies in Rouaud’s Champs d’honneurs
The unexpected long “Grande Guerre” rages like a wildfire in the hearts of the French much like for other European nations. Heavy propaganda to rally money, to motivate the troops, or even to ration food barely translate the horrors to the trenches. The animosity between the French and German forces has been festering for almost a century. In a historic retrospective, it comes to no surprise that the conflict resurfaces so close to the last Franco Prussian war of 1871, some of course regarding the Alsace-Lorraine territory that has been caught between the two powerful nations. Armed to fighting not only to win the war but to win their respective honors, this battle ranged beyond the four bloody years and stretches out to WW2 where it fuels more violence. Violence which is passed on from father to son, generation after generation.
In the 21st century, we still have numerous reminders of how deep that conflict ran a century ago and how it still festers in the collective memory. Jean Rouaud’s literary work, starting with Les Champs d’honneur (in English Fields of Glory) illustrates that point by building a family genealogy whose legacy is deeply traumatized by the presence of WW1. The death of three family members offers an introspective gaze at the brutality endured during the war eras, both WW1 and WW2, with at its center the author’s grandfather and the repercussions of his absence, his return and his tragic trauma on the remaining family members. Rouaud’s work offers a kaleidoscopic representation of traditions and legacies that has been heavily burdened by the horrors of the trenches, altering good men to become a shell of their former selves and to be carried generations later in the hopes to be carried out of the fields of glory.