Je hasarde une explication: écrire, c’est le dernier recours quand on a trahi.’ (Jean Genet – epigraph to La Place) Is this the case for Annie Ernaux’s narrator?

Résumé du document

In Annie Ernaux's La Place, the theme of betrayal is so prevalent that one could say it is the basis of the book. I think it would be fair to say that “écrire, c'est le dernier recours quand on a trahi” when looking at Annie Ernaux's narrator. The narrator feels that she has betrayed her family and this theme is conveyed through a sense of estrangement from her family and past, as well as a sense of guilt and failure.

Using characterization, Ernaux brings out the feeling of alienation that the narrator develops as the work progresses. The narrator used to have a fairly normal and close relationship with her parents during her early life, they actively encourage her to pursue an education, as her father was never allowed to do so, and hence he was forced to remain in the working class.

Extraits

[...] When she was younger, she started reading “L'expérience des limites” but did not like the book, n'y était question que de metaphysique et de littérature” this shows she shared a similar mentality as her father's, livres, la musique,. Moi, je n'en ai pas besoin (83). It is clear that when she was younger, she did have a connection with her dad, but through education, the socio-economic gap between them widened so much that they could no longer relate to one another because they lived in two different worlds. [...]

[...] In an endeavour to recapture it and to relieve her of the guilt and failure of betrayal, the narrates/writes the work in such a way to make the reader feel that she is from the working class. This in order to acknowledge her past and her family which she feels she has lost due to education. Although there is not an abundance of literary elements in this work, Ernaux manages to bring out this sense of betrayal due to guilt and failure by using characterisation style and structure. [...]

[...] Due to this her relationship with her father deteriorates irreparably as they are “poles apart” and the socio-economic difference between them is so great that they can no longer interact. These are clear examples in which Ernaux uses characterisation to bring out the failed relationship between the narrator and her father, hence the narrator's sense betrayal which is derived from the distance between her family brought around by education. The style La Place is written in illustrates the narrator's sense of betrayal via guilt. [...]

[...] hasarde une explication: écrire, c'est le dernier recours quand on a trahi.' (Jean Genet epigraph to La Place) Is this the case for Annie Ernaux's narrator? In Annie Ernaux's La Place, the theme of betrayal is prevalent, so much so that one could say it is the basis of the book. I think it would be fair to say that “écrire, c'est le dernier recours quand on a trahi” when looking at Annie Ernaux's narrator. The narrator feels she has betrayed her family and this theme is conveyed through a sense of estrangement from her family and past, as well as a sense of guilt and failure. [...]

[...] There is barely any imagery in this work and I feel that this is due to her parents' lifestyle. They did not have time to think about anything else except the practicality of the life they lead. Thinking and reflecting upon the meaning of life was a luxury and therefore not something available to her parents. They simply catalogued things and were preoccupied with the basics in life. The style of this book reflects this as there are no frills, in fact there are sometimes verbs missing from sentences, “L'un des hommes aussitôt” (112). [...]