‘Philippe Claudel’s Le Rapport de Brodeck as a Parody of the Fable or the Holocaust Universalized’

Abstract

<p>This article examines Philippe Claudel’s 2007 novel <i>Le Rapport de Brodeck</i>[<i>Brodeck</i>] which, while alluding to the events of the Holocaust, parodies tropes and narrative structures characteristic to fables and fairy tales. While analyzing the author’s simultaneous inscription and subversion of the fabulous genre, I speculate about the possible reasons for his narrative choices and consider the meanings that Claudel’s indirect representation of the Nazi genocide potentially generates. Given the widespread view of the Holocaust as sacred and unique, the article problematizes the novel’s universalization of the Shoah, which Claudel achieves precisely by drawing on genres that shun historical and geographical specificity, and that aim to convey timeless and universal truths.</p>