Georges Perec was born in Paris in 1936 to Icek “André” Judko Peretz, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, who enlisted in the French Army at the beginning of World War I, and was wounded in combat in 1940—he bled to death because there was insufficient medical personnel to attend to all the emergencies. Georges Perec’s mother, Cyrla “Cécile” (née Szulewicz), born in a small Polish

shtetl

, emigrated to Paris as a young girl with her whole family, settling in the impoverished section of the 20th arrondissement in the north of the city known as Belleville. After Cécile became a widow, she refused to leave the Nazi-occupied capital, which was very dangerous for Jews. According to Perec, in her naïveté Cécile believed she would be protected by the French government due to her…

2250 words

Citation: Block, Marcelline. "Georges Perec". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11946, accessed 14 October 2024.]

11946 Georges Perec 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.