Historical Memory and the Identity of Places: Approaches to War in Works by Énard and Rastello

Abstract

Th e idea of presenting and comparing two works as diff erent in their genre1 as the novel Zone (2008), by Mathias Énard,2 and the collection of documentary prose La guerra in casa (1998), by the Italian journalist and novelist Luca Rastello,3 occurs not only because of a common theme, namely the Yugoslavian confl ict of the 1990s. Th e two works are also linked by the fact that they connect refl ecting on history with refl ecting on the identity of geographical areas. In both cases, the identity of places is redefi ned in the light of memories of the violence that was committed there.