The Case of the Dream Maker: Perec, Pontalis, and Dream Writing
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature May 13, 2021 Aubrey Gabel 1 citation
This article examines Georges Perec's La Boutique obscure as a literary experiment in dream writing, contrasting it with French Freudian psychoanalysis, particularly the work of J.-B. Pontalis, Perec's analyst. Pontalis described a patient type called the "dream maker" that provoked counter-transference and required new therapeutic methods, and he and literary critics doubted the authenticity of Perec's dream journal. The article argues that Perec drew on non-psychoanalytic traditions like dream journals and dream sociology, undercutting symbolic readings. It focuses on the journal's attempt to experience and write about concentration camp dreams, where lucid dreaming becomes a ludic space for confronting unexperiencable historical horrors.