Dora Bruder una pietra d’inciampo per Dora Bruder. Distruzione e ricostruzione della sua memoria nella scrittura di Patrick Modiano

In this paper I focus on Patrick Modiano’s book Dora Bruder, because in some ways it is the summa of a literary expression of the dialectic between destruction and reconstruction of memory and, also, of the necessity to recover of what was deliberately hidden during the period of German Occupation in France. In fact, on the basis of an historical research, conducted by the author in archives, and an “intimate” research too, along the Parisian boulevards and cobblestones of a personal or deferred memory of those who remained unknown, this book attempts to bring to light, out of nothingness and silence, the life and portrait of Dora Bruder – a girl of Jewish origin, who lived in Paris during World War II and of whom nothing is known except her final destination. By means of literary writing, the author seeks to rescue the singular stories and proper names of the “drowned”, such as Dora, and to unravel or at least clear up the opacity of personal, national and universal history. Through a method of investigation and writing that is a skilful hybrid of historical research, topographical exploration (enlivened by the evocative power of the name), and trace retrieval, Modiano thus – and myself as her interpreter – sheds light on this underlying and restorative dialectic, creating not only a literary masterpiece with a strongly philosophical approach, but also a true and real stumbling block for Dora Bruder.