Sam Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198814535
- eISBN:
- 9780191852121
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198814535.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines the place of the diary in the context of considerable growth in all forms of life-writing since the 1970s, through a reading of diaries published by Annie Ernaux. The diary has ...
More
This chapter examines the place of the diary in the context of considerable growth in all forms of life-writing since the 1970s, through a reading of diaries published by Annie Ernaux. The diary has shared in the broader success of life-writing, but also remained marginal. This marginality is apparent within Ernaux’s overall writing project, broadly associated with the aims of autobiography, and even inimical to the diary. Her first diary publication, Journal du dehors, is positioned as an alternative to the journal intime by its focus on strangers and the outside world, but still points cautiously towards a diaristic authorial posture. Ernaux’s later publications of actual journaux intimes (including “Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit”) establish a complex relationship with Ernaux’s autobiographical works, acting as a supplement. L’Atelier noir, Ernaux’s writing diary (journal d’écriture), again acts as a supplement to her volume of complete works Écrire la vie.Less
This chapter examines the place of the diary in the context of considerable growth in all forms of life-writing since the 1970s, through a reading of diaries published by Annie Ernaux. The diary has shared in the broader success of life-writing, but also remained marginal. This marginality is apparent within Ernaux’s overall writing project, broadly associated with the aims of autobiography, and even inimical to the diary. Her first diary publication, Journal du dehors, is positioned as an alternative to the journal intime by its focus on strangers and the outside world, but still points cautiously towards a diaristic authorial posture. Ernaux’s later publications of actual journaux intimes (including “Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit”) establish a complex relationship with Ernaux’s autobiographical works, acting as a supplement. L’Atelier noir, Ernaux’s writing diary (journal d’écriture), again acts as a supplement to her volume of complete works Écrire la vie.
Lyn Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620429
- eISBN:
- 9781789629880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620429.003.0014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
One of the most important ‘nouvelle vérités’ that has challenged 1970s feminisms in the Anglophone world is intersectionality, and particularly the need to address race and ethnicity as constantly ...
More
One of the most important ‘nouvelle vérités’ that has challenged 1970s feminisms in the Anglophone world is intersectionality, and particularly the need to address race and ethnicity as constantly interacting with gender, sexuality, class and other variables; This chapter provides some general reflections on the extent to which a similar crisis and trajectory are present in French feminist histories and narratives, but its main focus is a case-study of Annie Ernaux’s work in this regard, considering questions that have rarely been asked in Ernaux criticism to date: to what extent does Ernaux engage with race and ethnicity as well as class and gender in her writing? If she is an unusually intersectional writer in terms of gender, sexuality and class, and in more recent years one might add age and ageing, does this approach and the strong influence of sociology on Ernaux’s writing lead to awareness of dimensions of oppression that she herself as a white French woman has not personally experienced? How does Ernaux write her own whiteness? Is the ‘I’ of Ernaux’s texts, whether fictional or autobiographical, ‘unevoix blanche’, adopting the cloak of universal whiteness?Less
One of the most important ‘nouvelle vérités’ that has challenged 1970s feminisms in the Anglophone world is intersectionality, and particularly the need to address race and ethnicity as constantly interacting with gender, sexuality, class and other variables; This chapter provides some general reflections on the extent to which a similar crisis and trajectory are present in French feminist histories and narratives, but its main focus is a case-study of Annie Ernaux’s work in this regard, considering questions that have rarely been asked in Ernaux criticism to date: to what extent does Ernaux engage with race and ethnicity as well as class and gender in her writing? If she is an unusually intersectional writer in terms of gender, sexuality and class, and in more recent years one might add age and ageing, does this approach and the strong influence of sociology on Ernaux’s writing lead to awareness of dimensions of oppression that she herself as a white French woman has not personally experienced? How does Ernaux write her own whiteness? Is the ‘I’ of Ernaux’s texts, whether fictional or autobiographical, ‘unevoix blanche’, adopting the cloak of universal whiteness?
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the works of French author Annie Ernau, and provides a close reading of several of her works including Les Armoires vides, ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the works of French author Annie Ernau, and provides a close reading of several of her works including Les Armoires vides, Ce qu'ils disent ou rien, and L'Evénement. It suggests that Ernaux's writing points up a number of important areas in contemporary critical thought including particularly fluid manifestations in the realm of autobiography, and that while her works are auto/biographical, they do not constitute autobiographies but posit a metonymic relationship between narrator and author.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the works of French author Annie Ernau, and provides a close reading of several of her works including Les Armoires vides, Ce qu'ils disent ou rien, and L'Evénement. It suggests that Ernaux's writing points up a number of important areas in contemporary critical thought including particularly fluid manifestations in the realm of autobiography, and that while her works are auto/biographical, they do not constitute autobiographies but posit a metonymic relationship between narrator and author.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines the portrayal of the adult woman and female behaviour paradigms in Annie Ernaux's La Femme gelée and Passion simple. It evaluates the interpretation of these works as feminist ...
More
This chapter examines the portrayal of the adult woman and female behaviour paradigms in Annie Ernaux's La Femme gelée and Passion simple. It evaluates the interpretation of these works as feminist and suggests that such an interpretation is based more on politically aware use of rhetoric than on the events they portray. The chapter explains that feminist interpretation of these works is focused on the narrator's sexually voracious attitude to her lover and on the frank portrayal of sexual desire from the perspective of a middle-aged female.Less
This chapter examines the portrayal of the adult woman and female behaviour paradigms in Annie Ernaux's La Femme gelée and Passion simple. It evaluates the interpretation of these works as feminist and suggests that such an interpretation is based more on politically aware use of rhetoric than on the events they portray. The chapter explains that feminist interpretation of these works is focused on the narrator's sexually voracious attitude to her lover and on the frank portrayal of sexual desire from the perspective of a middle-aged female.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines the issue of self-representation through the mothers in the diary-form writing of Annie Ernaux, which are Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit, Journal du dehors, and La Vie ...
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This chapter examines the issue of self-representation through the mothers in the diary-form writing of Annie Ernaux, which are Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit, Journal du dehors, and La Vie extérieure. It suggests that her use of the diary form points to her belief in the fundamental contiguity of self and Other, and that all three texts were driven by the desire to reinforce the connection between self and familiar Other. The chapter also contends that the diary in these texts constitutes a means of promoting the self/Other fusion by transforming the typically monologic discourse of diary writing into a form of dialogic exchange.Less
This chapter examines the issue of self-representation through the mothers in the diary-form writing of Annie Ernaux, which are Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit, Journal du dehors, and La Vie extérieure. It suggests that her use of the diary form points to her belief in the fundamental contiguity of self and Other, and that all three texts were driven by the desire to reinforce the connection between self and familiar Other. The chapter also contends that the diary in these texts constitutes a means of promoting the self/Other fusion by transforming the typically monologic discourse of diary writing into a form of dialogic exchange.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines Annie Ernaux's La Honte and L'Evénement, which represent a culmination of the many ‘Ernausian’ themes and techniques found in her previous works. It suggests that the narrative ...
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This chapter examines Annie Ernaux's La Honte and L'Evénement, which represent a culmination of the many ‘Ernausian’ themes and techniques found in her previous works. It suggests that the narrative structure of Ernaux's texts is typically circular and that all of her concentric narrative circles are firmly rooted in the pivotal period of childhood. The chapter also mentions that Ernaux's narrators repeatedly expose the naturalised inferiority of the marginalised and contends that the social significance of cultural indicators in her writing is dictated by existent cultural hierarchies.Less
This chapter examines Annie Ernaux's La Honte and L'Evénement, which represent a culmination of the many ‘Ernausian’ themes and techniques found in her previous works. It suggests that the narrative structure of Ernaux's texts is typically circular and that all of her concentric narrative circles are firmly rooted in the pivotal period of childhood. The chapter also mentions that Ernaux's narrators repeatedly expose the naturalised inferiority of the marginalised and contends that the social significance of cultural indicators in her writing is dictated by existent cultural hierarchies.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter analyses the issue of auto/biographical legacies in Annie Ernaux's La Place and Une femme. It suggests that the instances of metacommentary first used by Ernaux in La Femme gelée became ...
More
This chapter analyses the issue of auto/biographical legacies in Annie Ernaux's La Place and Une femme. It suggests that the instances of metacommentary first used by Ernaux in La Femme gelée became more prominent in La Place and Une femme both in their typographical separation from the main narrative and in their explicatory function of the narrator's perception of the role of writing and language generally. The chapter also contends that the auto/biographical and ethnographical elements of these works point to their endemic generic instability.Less
This chapter analyses the issue of auto/biographical legacies in Annie Ernaux's La Place and Une femme. It suggests that the instances of metacommentary first used by Ernaux in La Femme gelée became more prominent in La Place and Une femme both in their typographical separation from the main narrative and in their explicatory function of the narrator's perception of the role of writing and language generally. The chapter also contends that the auto/biographical and ethnographical elements of these works point to their endemic generic instability.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235378.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines the issue of sexuality in Annie Ernaux's Les Armoires vides and Ce qu'ils disent ou rien. It suggests that the vacillating sense of Denise in Les Armoires vides is aggravated by ...
More
This chapter examines the issue of sexuality in Annie Ernaux's Les Armoires vides and Ce qu'ils disent ou rien. It suggests that the vacillating sense of Denise in Les Armoires vides is aggravated by her increasingly cross-cultural locus and uncertainty as to the precise components of her future, while the isolation of Anne in Ce qu'ils disent ou rien foregrounds the class, generational, and gender bias that infuses linguistic exchanges. The chapter argues that both narrators straddle a cross-cultural position and consequently embrace multilingualism.Less
This chapter examines the issue of sexuality in Annie Ernaux's Les Armoires vides and Ce qu'ils disent ou rien. It suggests that the vacillating sense of Denise in Les Armoires vides is aggravated by her increasingly cross-cultural locus and uncertainty as to the precise components of her future, while the isolation of Anne in Ce qu'ils disent ou rien foregrounds the class, generational, and gender bias that infuses linguistic exchanges. The chapter argues that both narrators straddle a cross-cultural position and consequently embrace multilingualism.
Siobhan McIlvanney
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853235378
- eISBN:
- 9781846312571
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846312571
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This critical study focusing exclusively on Annie Ernaux's writing trajectory provides an analysis of her individual texts. Following a broadly feminist hermeneutic, it engages in a series of close ...
More
This critical study focusing exclusively on Annie Ernaux's writing trajectory provides an analysis of her individual texts. Following a broadly feminist hermeneutic, it engages in a series of close readings of Ernaux's works in a move to highlight the contradictions and nuances in her writing, and to demonstrate the intellectual intricacies of her literary project. By so doing, the study seeks to introduce new readers to Ernaux's works, while engaging on less-familiar terrain those already familiar with her writing.Less
This critical study focusing exclusively on Annie Ernaux's writing trajectory provides an analysis of her individual texts. Following a broadly feminist hermeneutic, it engages in a series of close readings of Ernaux's works in a move to highlight the contradictions and nuances in her writing, and to demonstrate the intellectual intricacies of her literary project. By so doing, the study seeks to introduce new readers to Ernaux's works, while engaging on less-familiar terrain those already familiar with her writing.
Sam Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198814535
- eISBN:
- 9780191852121
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198814535.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This is the first study of the diary in French writing across the twentieth century, as a genre including both fictional and non-fictional works. From the 1880s it became apparent to writers in ...
More
This is the first study of the diary in French writing across the twentieth century, as a genre including both fictional and non-fictional works. From the 1880s it became apparent to writers in France that their diaries (or journaux intimes) – a supposedly private form of writing – would probably come to be published, strongly affecting the way their readers viewed their other published works, and their very persona as an author. More than any other, André Gide embraced the literary potential of the diary: the first part of this book follows his experimentation with the diary in the fictional works Les Cahiers d’André Walter (1891) and Paludes (1895), in his diary of the composition of his great novel, Le Journal des faux-monnayeurs (1926), and in his monumental Journal 1889–1939 (1939). The second part follows developments in diary-writing after the Second World War, inflected by radical changes in attitudes towards the writing subject. Raymond Queneau’s works published under the pseudonym of Sally Mara (1947–1962) used the diary playfully at a time when the writing subject was condemned by the literary avant-garde. Roland Barthes’s experiments with the diary (1977–1979) took it to the extremes of its formal possibilities, at the point of a return of the writing subject. Annie Ernaux’s published diaries (1993–2011) demonstrate the role of the diary in the modern field of life-writing, especially in comparison with autobiography. Throughout the century, the diary has repeatedly been used to construct an œuvre and author, but also to call these fundamental literary concepts into question.Less
This is the first study of the diary in French writing across the twentieth century, as a genre including both fictional and non-fictional works. From the 1880s it became apparent to writers in France that their diaries (or journaux intimes) – a supposedly private form of writing – would probably come to be published, strongly affecting the way their readers viewed their other published works, and their very persona as an author. More than any other, André Gide embraced the literary potential of the diary: the first part of this book follows his experimentation with the diary in the fictional works Les Cahiers d’André Walter (1891) and Paludes (1895), in his diary of the composition of his great novel, Le Journal des faux-monnayeurs (1926), and in his monumental Journal 1889–1939 (1939). The second part follows developments in diary-writing after the Second World War, inflected by radical changes in attitudes towards the writing subject. Raymond Queneau’s works published under the pseudonym of Sally Mara (1947–1962) used the diary playfully at a time when the writing subject was condemned by the literary avant-garde. Roland Barthes’s experiments with the diary (1977–1979) took it to the extremes of its formal possibilities, at the point of a return of the writing subject. Annie Ernaux’s published diaries (1993–2011) demonstrate the role of the diary in the modern field of life-writing, especially in comparison with autobiography. Throughout the century, the diary has repeatedly been used to construct an œuvre and author, but also to call these fundamental literary concepts into question.
