Abstract

In Georges Perec’s works the identity reflection and the relationship with Jewish origins constitute a complex itinerary. Perec will try several times the autobiographical writing but it will be with the novel “W ou le souvenir d’enfanceµ that he will be able to achieve it. However, among the works that precedes “W ou the souvenir of d’enfanceµ, “Un homme qui dortµ a Proustian-inspired novel on urban solitude offers itself as a space for the analysis of Georges Perec’s identity writing. The essay reflects on the construction of the neutral narrative, a textual typology theorized by both Barthes and Blanchot, which Perec for the first time experiences in this work to symbolize the crisis of ordinary narration. Perec will find in this alienating novel just that neutral writing that in the work “W ou le souvenir d’enfanceµ will allow him to face the memory of his childhood.