History and experience in Elena Mauli Shapiro’s "13 rue Thérèse": How do we get to know the past?

Abstract

Elena Mauli Shapiro in “13 rue Thérèse” asks questions about the ways of mediating the past. The problem is by no means new but the author attempts to present historical events through the category of historical experience as a valid manner of showing the past. Therefore, the novel is looked upon from the perspective of Frank Ankersmit’s concept of experience as well as the theory of objects as tools which assist the recipient in mediating the past. Thus, both through the use of the category of experience and the presentation of history through objects, the past is presented as fragmented and unreliable, which in fact reflects how historical writing is perceived nowadays, especially if the ending of the novel suggests that the past is inevitably linked with the present.