Les récits de filiation d’Annie Ernaux dans la perspective du care

Abstract

Since the second decade of the twenty-first century, French and Québécois literary studies have identified a ‘literature of care’, a set of literary works some of whose features converge with the feminist perspective of care. Taking its cue from Larroux (2020), this article examines two of Annie Ernaux's narratives of working-class filiation, La Place (1983) and Une femme (1988), as well as ‘ Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit’ (1997), to assess their affinities with this perspective. First, I analyse Ernaux's attention to ordinary life. I then explore the relations between the acts of caring and writing, arguing that Ernaux's narratives somehow have the ability to take care not only of her deceased parents, but also of the working class in general. Finally, I show that the poetics at work in La Place bears witness to the author's caring attitude.