Étoilement: The Starring Effect

A public lecture by Mélanie Péron (University of Pennsylvania)

2016 Rutman Fellow for Research and Teaching

This event will take place at the University of Pennsylvania.

The creation of a digital map of Paris during the Occupation aimed at patching the blanks left in the national memory. Through the use of a meticulous and unpredictable method of knotting and unfolding, the VHA testimonies of three older ladies were connected to the interrupted stories of three young girls who lived in occupied Paris -  Hélène Berr, Dora Bruder and Louise Jacobson. The result was a star-spray effect “a sort of lifting, suspension, a prolongation of a time that is not supposed to last.” In this lecture, Péron will explore how testimony can fill in the gaps in national memory and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Mélanie Péron is a Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Advanced Genocide Research's 2016 Rutman Fellow for Research and Teaching. She received her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D at the Université de la Sorbonne. Her research interests include 19th century French literature, Holocaust studies and digital pedagogy. Péron's current research project aims to create a digital multi-layered map of Paris locating the places mentioned in testimonies from witnesses of the Shoah and post-memory novels.

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