Itineraris de la culpa. A propòsit de Némirovsky i Jünger

Taking as a point of departure an exposition that took place in the New York Public Library in the spring of 2009, Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation, this article analyzes aspects of collective guilt in two texts, Suite française by Iréne Némirovsky and the diaries of Ernst Jünger, Strahlungen. Némirovsky tells in his nouvelles an alternative and not too pleasant version of French historical episodes that have been explained in a glorified version by a nationalistic and deforming historiography. In spite of being texts of a very different nature, at various times, Jünger, who was a hero in World War I, adopts a critical voice, particularly about the presence of Germans in Paris in 1940. The analysis is based on a reflection on the literary writing of history and the concept of guilt developed by Lévinas.