French Literature Reviews - 2026

Annelies Schulte Nordholt, Georges Perec et ses lieux de mémoire. Le projet de Lieux
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Texts describing his places of memory, photographs, personal documents, or items gathered from the streets: Lieux constitutes a vast and fascinating body of work through which Perec sought to anchor his autobiography within the urban landscape. Georges Perec et ses lieux de mémoire is the first monograph based entirely on this "mythical book," which long remained unpublished. It explores its thematic constants, writing practices, graphics, and photographs, demonstrating the impact of classical rhetoric on Perec's methodology—making these texts a truly traditional framework of his sites of memory.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Lieux in All Its States

Chapter 1: Genesis and Evolution of the Project
Chapter 2: Critical Readings of Lieux

Part 2: Micro-readings

Chapter 3: Gaités
Chapter 4: Joy and Melancholy of an Urban Archive
Chapter 5: Photography in Lieux
Chapter 6: Around Rue Vilin

Part 3: Shedding Light on the Memories

Chapter 7: Lieux. A Rhetorical Work
Chapter 8: The Work of Memory in the Souvenirs
Chapter 9: The Places of Writing

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Georges Perec is widely recognized for his association with the OuLiPo group and his experimental approach to narrative structure, constrained writing, and the spatial dimensions of everyday life. The urban landscape, memory, and archives frequently recur as central preoccupations in mid-to-late twentieth-century French literature, reflecting broader artistic engagements with topography and personal history. Texts describing his places of memory, photographs, personal documents, or items gathered from the streets constitute a vast body of work through which Perec sought to anchor his autobiography within the urban landscape. Readers interested in contemporary French literature and the avant-garde traditions of the twentieth century may find it relevant to their study of urban topography and memory.

You can read an interview with the author by Maxime Decout on Diacritik.com…