Filiations abortives : l’avortement dans la littérature française de l’extrême contemporain

Abstract

ABSTRACT If abortion remains a taboo experience anchored—in social, political and media discourse—in the notion of trauma, French literature of the last decades offers increasingly diversified narratives on the question. Wishing to move away from the binaries that have always animated debates on abortion, several authors reveal a much more varied spectrum of reactions towards this experience, which can be contradictory or ambiguous, combining relief with loss. This article focuses on this more complex vision of abortion through the analysis of three literary works of the last decade: Dix-sept ans by Colombe Schneck (2015); Ligne de partage des eaux by Fabienne Swiatly (2011); and Il fallait que je vous le dise by Aude Mermilliod (2019). After reviewing the discourses circulating around abortion, the article demonstrates how, in these works written in the first person, abortion registers as completion incompletion, leaving its marks in the women who might feel a connection to their foetus. Finally, these texts make it possible to read, see, and imagine a mosaic of abortion experiences. This gives rise to filiations made through the experience of abortion, bringing together women who underwent it and put it into words, and encouraging others to share their stories.