THE CAFÉ IN PATRICK MODIANO’S NOVELS: A HETEROTOPIA OF MEMORY

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2024-0046

Abstract

The space or landscape, particularlycafés, is a significant sign in Patrick Modiano’snovels and one of the defining characteristics of hisidentity in French literary circles as well as in theliterary world. Most studies have examined thecafé space from a psychological perspective orthrough the lens of Bakhtin's chronotope theory.However, since Modiano’s narrators orprotagonists often appear as flaneurs andrememberers, these approaches inadvertentlydismiss the inseparable relationship between thethree mentioned themes: place-memory-identity.Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory ofheterotopia and Pierre Nora's concept of lieux demémoire, this article considers the café space inModiano's novels as a place of memory, or moreprecisely, a heterotopia of memory. Through thislens, places in general, and the café in particular, isnot merely a cocoon of emotion for the charactersbut rather a museum of memory, a heterotopia forthe forgotten. They preserve personal memoriesand the connections between the subject and thesurrounding society and environment. Thedisappearance of these heterotopias reflects thefragmentation of urban space caused by theacceleration of history and time. Through this,readers recognize fractures in the process ofestablishing identity as well as in the relationshipsbetween people