Abstract
This chapter focuses on the character of Adolf Hitler in Frédéric Dard’s Le Dragon de Cracovie (1998) and Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s La Part de l’autre (2001). The two novelists explore the same questions through fiction: How, why and when did the ‘nobody Adolf’ become the ‘somebody Hitler’? Their answers diverge, the genetic make-up of Hitler being key in Dard’s novel, while Schmitt’s novel stresses the role of others/society. Through an examination of Schmitt’s paratextual claim that his novel contains no historical error, this chapter concludes with a discussion of the different objectives, writing principles and constraints of novelists and historians.
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Notes
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Two aggravating factors made things worse for Mitterrand. First, it was revealed that he regularly laid flowers on Pétain’s tomb in honour of the hero of the First World War (and not the Vichy Head of State); the fact that other Presidents had done exactly the same thing before him was overlooked. Second, Mitterrand’s categorical refusal to apologize in the name of France to the Jews for their plight during the Second World War took on a different meaning all of a sudden. To be clear, Mitterrand did not deny Vichy’s role, but, for him, Vichy was to blame, not France and not the French Republic. It is only in 1995, during the commemoration of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, that his successor, President Jacques Chirac, recognised the responsibility of the French authorities in the persecution of the Jews during Second World War.
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I develop these literary strategies further in a forthcoming book chapter (Bragança 2020).
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It narrowly missed the ‘Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française’ (Le Monde, 25 October 2001). Schmitt compiled the most positive reviews of this novel on his own website: http://www.eric-emmanuel-schmitt.com/Litterature-romans-la-part-de-l-autre.html (accessed 20 December 2018).
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The author is almost apologetic in his diary when he mentions this unlikely encounter. He justifies it as follows: ‘Je n’ai pas pu résister: Hitler rencontre Freud. Outre qu’elle m’amuse, cette scène me permet de raconter l’enfance d’Hitler sur le divan et de montrer qu’on peut guérir de son enfance, quelle qu’elle soit. Adolf H. s’en sortira, Hitler pas. Notre passé n’a que le poids que nous lui laissons; la réflexion, le travail nous permettent de l’alléger’ (Schmitt 2003, 486; I could not resist it: Hitler meets Freud. I find it amusing, but this scene also allows me to delve into Hitler’s childhood on the couch and show that one can be cured of one’s childhood, whatever it may have been. Adolf H. will get over it, but not Hitler. Our past only has the weight that we give it; reflection and work allow us to lighten its burden).
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Schmitt actually suggests in his diary that it would be most useful to create an Observatoire des humiliations (Observatory of humiliations): ‘Peut-être préviendrait-on ainsi le rassemblement d’humiliés exaspérés, désespérés, donc prêts à tout. On s’épargnerait peut-être des Hitler et d’autres terroristes actuels’ (Schmitt 2003, 492; perhaps, we could thus prevent the gathering of humiliated and exasperated people, ready for anything. Perhaps, we could avoid some Hitlers and other contemporary terrorists). Coincidentally, this novel was published just weeks before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the Twin Towers in the USA.
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Bragança, M. (2019). From Adolf to Hitler: On Frédéric Dard’s Le Dragon de Cracovie (1998) and Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s La Part de l’autre (2001). In: Hitler’s French Literary Afterlives, 1945-2017. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21617-7_4
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