Collective Memory and Identity Reconstruction in Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin: A Heterotopic and Narratological Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/lark.5666Keywords:
Collective memory – narrative identity – heterotopia – resilience – funerary writingAbstract
This interdisciplinary study explores the mechanisms of identity reconstruction in Changer l’eau des fleurs by Valérie Perrin. Drawing on the sociology of Maurice Halbwachs, the hermeneutics of Paul Ricœur, and the spatial theory of Michel Foucault, the study demonstrates that the cemetery, far from being a space of nothingness, operates as a protective heterotopia and a structuring social framework for memory.
The analysis reveals that the protagonist, Violette Toussaint, succeeds in reclaiming her ipseity and restoring her bodily integrity by becoming the custodian of a shared collective memory. Through her registers and her care for the graves, she transforms trauma into a coherent narrative configuration.
The aesthetics of transmission, characterized by narrative polyphony and the strategic use of flashbacks, confirms that the act of bearing witness constitutes a crucial defense against oblivion and finitude. The study concludes that Perrin’s poetics elevates shared speech into a driving force of ontological rebirth within the funerary
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