Auterlitz or the re-cognition of the self

Abstract

Memory, identity and recognition are constructions which allow the subject to be linked to his past. Insofar as the past is deprived of its primary identity, the quest for being is reduced to the recollection of treads to create a new narrative which would allow the securing of the individual in his own words and in the words of other persons. The purpose of this article is to explore these constructions going through Austerlitz, the novel of the German writer W. G. Sebald, aided by the hermeneutical proposals of Ricoeur.