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The individual and the social in Annie Ernaux's autobiographical writing
- Authors: Kosova Y.A.1, Ponomarenko E.B.1, Siary G.2
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Affiliations:
- Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
- Paul Valéry University of Montpellier
- Issue: Vol 25, No 1 (2020)
- Pages: 111-130
- Section: Comparative Studies
- URL: https://journals.rudn.ru/literary-criticism/article/view/23613
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9220-2020-25-1-111-130
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Abstract
This article examines the ideological and aesthetic peculiarities of autobiographical writing in “La Place” by Annie Ernaux, a well-known contemporary French writer. We argue that Annie Ernaux 's “flat writing” is close to a sociological or ethnographic study and nearly devoid of any autobiographical subjectivity. Autobiographical writing is approached through the concept of symbolic violence, borrowed from the sociologist P. Bourdieu. Ernaux indeed replaces event history, a feature of autobiography, by the study of socio-historical causes of “class distancing” between father and daughter. The analysis of key concepts of the Ernaux's poetics makes it possible, on the one hand, to grasp the appearance of social and cultural alienation and, on the other hand, to achieve a social criticism of reality.
About the authors
Yulia A. Kosova
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
Author for correspondence.
Email: uakossova@mail.ru
PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages
10 Miklukho-Maklaya St, bldg. 2, Moscow, 117198, Russian FederationElena B. Ponomarenko
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
Email: ponomar_elena@mail.ru
PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages
10 Miklukho-Maklaya St, bldg. 2, Moscow, 117198, Russian FederationGérard Siary
Paul Valéry University of Montpellier
Email: gerardsiary@gmail.com
Doctor of Philology, Professor of General and Comparative Literature of Department of Modern Literature
Mende Road, Montpellier, 34199, Cedex 05, French RepublicReferences
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