Annie Ernaux: politics lived and written

Abstract

‘Annie Ernaux: Politics lived and written’ starts by outlining the aim and key terms of this special issue of French Cultural Studies dedicated to ‘Annie Ernaux: Writing, Politics’. It then provides an overview of her life, highlighting some of the ways in which the writer, who was born in 1940, experienced or witnessed first-hand the historical events, legal pressures, and socio-political realities of her era. There follows a reminder of the two prevalent concerns that have structured her work, namely ‘le mépris social’ and ‘la domination masculine’, both of which pertain to ‘ le politique’. ‘ La politique’ being also subject to examination in the articles in this issue, the politics of Ernaux – the citizen and the writer – is subsequently surveyed and consideration is given to the author's will to distinguish it from the ‘political action of literary writing’. Finally, this introduction examines the processes of representation and self-positioning that shape the political in Ernaux's prose. A concluding section provides an overview of the nine contributions brought together here.