Annie Ernaux: 'La Place' and 'La Honte' by Alison S. Fell

Abstract

248 Reviews with theAlgeria thatDjebar seeks to represent, since Algeria is, in essence, an un graspable force and one thatshould not, perhaps cannot, be theorized so rigidly.One possible criticism is the reluctance to engage with Djebar's filmcareer,which would have furtherunderpinned the arguments regarding the difficulties ofmaintaining a culturally authentic voice through themedium of the colonial language. However, this is an omission that is addressed by the author and is a possible field for further enquiry. This study constitutes an indispensable resource for scholars and students alike with an interest inDjebar or, indeed, Algerian postcolonial literature generally. SWANSEA UNIVERSITY SOPHIE SMITH Annie Ernaux: 'La Place' and 'La Honte'. By ALISON S. FELL. (Critical Guides to French Texts, 140) London: Grant & Cutler. 2oo6. 85 pp. ?7.95. ISBN 978 0-7293-0449-8. As Alison Fell notes in her introduction to this critical guide, a particular aspect of Ernaux's ceuvre is itsevolution as a series of pairings-a latter text revisiting some of thematerial already explored in a former-of which La Place and La Honte constitute a typical example, hence theirpairing here. La Place (i983) isErnaux's best-known textboth in France and abroad, and has subsequently generated much scholarly at tention. The deceptively simple structure and style used to represent the narrator's sense of loss and betrayal following her father'sdeath, grounded in a context of collec tiveexperience of classmigration and division rather than focusing on the individual, have made ita regular feature on A-Level and undergraduate syllabuses. The recep tion ofLa Honte (I 997) was more mixed, as critics were by then starting toquestion Ernaux's move towards reworking already published material, and her tendency to reveal increasingly intimate details about herself and her family.The starting-point is theabrupt announcement thatwhen shewas twelve, thenarratorwitnessed her father attempting to strangle hermother; she then attempts tomake sense of this traumatic scene by searching fora reliable social and personal context. Although inher introduction Fell hints at some disparity and tension between the two texts, she chooses to study them together rather than separately, and proceeds to highlight some key aspects that characterize both, pointing at differences only when necessary. The firstchapter, 'Genre', explores the hybrid formof Ernaux's writing, with its explicit rejection of the forms of novel, autobiography, and biography, and itscarefulmaintenance of a sociological/ethnographic perspective on her familyhis tory.Fell's discussion of the several photographs described in both texts allows her to highlight and illustrate the complex relation between the private and the public that pervades Ernaux's writing. Chapter 2, 'Education and Class', introduces some of Pierre Bourdieu's key ideas on thepower struggle between 'les classes dominantes' and 'les classes dominees', particularly his theorization of the relationship between class and education as presented inLes Heritiers: lesetudiants et la culture (Paris: Mi nuit, I964) and La Reproduction: elementspour une theoriedu systemed'enseignement (Paris: Minuit, 1970), both in collaboration with Jean-Claude Passeron. Fell then clearly and convincingly illustratesErnaux's explicit endorsement of theFrench so ciologist's views that education maintains, rather than diminishes as itpurports to do, class divide and social status quo. The thirdchapter, 'Language and Style', offers a detailed analysis of style, tone, register, and structure used to render the desired narrative neutrality,which will benefit students wishing to improve their skills in tex tual analysis. The last chapter, 'Family Secrets', explores the representation of shame and guilt that results from thenarrator's difficulty in reconciling her lived family ex perience with her acquired bourgeois/Catholic critique of itsperceived 'inferiority'. MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 249 Making personal traumas public through the process ofwriting, Fell argues, can be interpreted as fulfillinga cathartic function, as itcontributes towards transcending many divides atwork inherwriting. As La Place has already been the subject of study guides in both English and French, paired with Une femmeon the grounds that each deals with parental death, it may be that amore comparative approach, highlighting thedifferences between La Place and La Honte, and giving more prominence to the tension and complementar ity that bind them together,would have provided even greater scope for innovative analysis. Even so, this guide, with itsuseful bibliography of both works, plus essays...