From Christ-Killers to Christ-Figures: Representations of Jews in post-1980 French Occupation Fiction
In: French cultural studies, Volume 18, Issue 1, p. 107-124
ISSN: 1740-2352
This article focuses on contemporary (post-1980) popular French fiction which is set in the Occupation years and combines a war narrative with a romance element. It is suggested that while these texts acknowledge the iniquities of the Vichy regime by representing anti-semitic measures, acts and attitudes carried out at all levels, from state decree to individual prejudice, what is given with one hand might all too easily be taken away with the other. After a discussion of how instances of anti-semitism are represented–are they, and indeed should they be, overtly condemned?–the article suggests that Jewish characters are commonly represented in stereotypical terms, and furthermore routinely narratologically marginalised and instrumentalised. The representations of Jewish characters, the piece concludes, may well relate to perceived threats to the integrity of today's French Republic.