The Destruction of the «Myth of Resistance» within the Mode Rétro: The Case of Patrick Modiano

Abstract

During the seventies in France a new cultural movement emerged vigorously, formed by a number of authors and filmmakers who would see their creations grouped together under the label of mode rétro later on. This «retro style» brought about a considerable shift in the relation of the French with their immediate past, particularly the Nazi occupation. It guaranteed the return of all those representations of events that had been suppressed by the official discourse, itself completely paralyzed in its attempt to sustain a myth about the war years that to the generation of the early sixties already seemed an unsustainable construction. This way, a sort of crusade for the truth of these black years takes place; a crusade Patrick Modiano contributed very notably to with his first literary works.