W or the testimony of the childhood

Abstract

This article discusses a special testimony given by Georges Perec in his book W or the memory of childhood. When he lost his parents in the Shoah, Perec was too small to have a complete understanding of the events, but he wasn’t so young as to stay completely alienated while the events were taking place. Thereby, to face his childhood trauma, Perec composed a work with full of enigmas, restrictions, games, puzzles and fiction that could be read in a testimonial way.