The Third Generation of the Mitlaüfers and the «Suivistes»: From the Pain of a Traumatic Legacy Relationship to the Empowerment of Speaking Out Through Filial Narrative

Abstract

Daniel Mendelsohn concludes the dedication of Les Disparus (2006) by intertextualising the hemistich “sunt lacrimae rerum” from Virgil’s Aeneid. This fragment of verse reflects Aeneas’ reflections and emotions as he admires on the walls of the temple of Juno several scenes from the Trojan War, in which many of his countrymen and friends perished. In Les Disparus, the tears bear witness to the perspective of the spectator, as the tragic events depicted are visibly opposed to the pictorial experience. Through the narrative of filiation, Vaterland (2015) by Anne Weber and Les Amnésiques (2017) by Géraldine Schwarz, granddaughters of suivistes and mitläufers, we will find ourselves on the other side of history and its stories. Thus, through this dictum, we will analyse the scope of the genitive rerum of the authors/narrators/researchers in their painful reconstruction of their grandparents' lives.