WORK OF MOURNING AND APPEAL WITHIN TWO “MEXICAN NOVELS” BY ANNA SEGHERS

Abstract

The work of mourning and appeal within two “Mexican novels” by Anna Seghers.
In the two novels from the Mexican exile, The excursion of the dead girls and Two monuments Seghers produces, based on an act of memory or reflecting on different “lieux de memoire” (Pierre Nora) dynamic continuities which enclose past, present and future and partially merge indistinguishable into one another. This dynamic of writing which turns the dead into an obligation for the living, comprising the most intimate as the relationship with her mother and with her childhood friends, but also world affairs, is not self-sufficient. It transcends itself expressing the implicit reminder to the reader to behave after maxims, not because they are “valuable” but inevitable to the preservation of life. Seghers texts are determined to create motivations and to change themselfs one more time: into the behavior of people.