ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interrelationship between the self and the systemic in Georges Perec's autobiographical writing through the figure of dispossession, which knits them together. The nature of the trauma endured during childhood results for Perec in a relationship to his own self marked by dispossession. Perec seeks to democratize autobiography by shifting emphasis onto the reader, using his own textual systems to create a space in his self-writing for the reader's non-possessive participation. Without memories of his past, Perec's capacity to write his individual history is acutely impoverished. Perec's difficulties in remembering his childhood are so pronounced that he is almost bereft even of screen memories. The depictions of aspects of Perec's self encountered in W ou le souvenir d'enfance exist alongside several other self-representations. Self-possession is not only impossible for Perec; for him, possession of the writing self becomes an undesirable, because unreasonable, goal.
