To Kill the False Woman: Annie Ernaux Autobiographical Writing in Happening

Abstract

Annie Ernaux’s L’événement (Happening) stands as a powerful piece of autobiographical discourse and incites discussion in both trauma literature and as an extension of Hélène Cixous’s The laugh of the Medusa. Ernaux’s text revolves around her clandestine abortion, as she writes of her trauma through the event. I will attempt to demonstrate that while the mere act of writing constitutes a form of overcoming traumatic events, Ernaux’s writing goes above and beyond these conventions. To do so, I will analyze how Ernaux’s autobiographical writing combines several discursive, narrative, and literary techniques to firstly meditate and reflect on the past and present, and secondly to reconcile and overcome the past and presents perspectives, or the “unspeakable” incited by rigid social and legal norms. I will further demonstrate how by writing her own body, that is by meditating on the numerous limitations placed on the female body and mind, her literary contribution is two-fold: Ernaux both pays homage to her own personal female experience and represents the collective female experience in a larger, historical context. The result is a re-framing of a feminine narrative into a human question through a validation of Ernaux’s experience.