Interaction of Photography and Autofiction in Patrick Modiano’s Encre sympathique

Abstract

Through this article, we will try to demonstrate the importance of photography in the literary work of Patrick Modiano. Faithful to his autofictional universe, in Encre sympathique, the writer crystallizes the period of the German Occupation of France during the Second World War. In this novel, the narrator searches for traces of a missing woman whose identity is fragile like the author. Within this quest, photography becomes a crucial element in the narration of facts and in the conjuring up of an identity crisis. It is a narrative lubricant that ensures the entanglement of voices and the embedding of several stories, even several micro-biographies. These are often accompanied by authorial interventions which try to theorize about a philosophy of life. It also serves to deal with the loss of identity in highly shady spaces where real characters and people have been rampant. Thanks to the intervention of photography, the space becomes a philosophical entity in an autofictional horizon skillfully sealed by a person disillusioned with History.