The migrant memory: Les urnes scellees by Emile Ollivier

Abstract

The article “The Migrant Memory: Les urnes scellées by Emile Ollivier” deals the work of Emile Ollivier, modern Quebecois writer of Haitian origin, whose texts are permeated by motives pertaining on one hand to his exile in Canada and, on the other hand, to the picture of the native country as a souvenir. The problematics of temporality and memory is analyzed in detail by Paul Ricœur in his works Temps et récit and La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli, chosen for that reason as the main methodological references of this article. In migrant literature, however, temporality is closely related to spatiality, as it has been noted by Quebecois literary theorists, e.g. Simon Harel. The memory can be considered as a dynamic force in the text of the novel Les urnes scellées. A couple of Haitian emigrants, returning from Canada to their homeland after twenty-five years of the exile, seems to take hard the contrast between their memories and reality. Adrien’s profession of archaeologist pushes him nevertheless to search for the past. He is obsessed by looking for the circumstances of a murder. In spite of his vain searching of the murderer, Adrien uncovers a network of secrets and memories of the community. The results of the analysis reveal how difficult is getting rid of the burden of the past. Memory is closely connected with space not only in individual cases, but also on national level. The collective memory of Haiti finally appears as a part of message of the novel. Another message, on individual level, is knowing himself through memory.