History and Legend

Mehar Toor

Writing Instructor: Jason Jenkins

FFYS 1000 03

19th September 2016

History and Legend

History can be described as “the record of past events and times, especially in connection with the human race.”^[1] Legend on the other hand, can be defined as “a non historical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.”^[2] There is a very evident difference between the two. One may gather that while History may accurately represent the past, Legends may represent what the people thought at that time and this may not always be in accordance with the history we hear and learn about.

‘W, or the Memory of Childhood’ written by Georges PEREC is a semi-autobiographic piece of writing that was published in 1975. Perec’s work is a “collection of uncertain memories, as well as descriptions of photos, which preserve moments from Perec's childhood.”^[3] “The adult narrator sometimes provides interpretations of the childhood memories, and often comments on details of the memories which his research showed to be false or borrowed.”^[4]

It’s interesting to note that the author begins the second chapter by saying, “I have no childhood memory.”^[5] Since it is apparent that he doesn’t remember much, the autobiographical work of fiction unravels the truth behind the protagonist’s life. Furthermore, the book reads, “I was excused, a different history, history with a capital H, had answered the questions in my head”^[6] One may interpret this statement as the authors way of highlighting the difference between the general history and a personal history. Each and everyone one of us lives a life impacted by the terrors and horrors our family and our country have lived by. Perec talks about how his life was one that was simply excluded from the necessity of a personal history as he found his answers within the documented facts of the war.