TIME-PALIMPSESTE: MEMORY, IMAGES AND CREATION IN LES ANNEES BY ANNIE ERNAUX

Abstract

In her most recent work, entitled Les Années, Annie Ernaux returns to themes, which obsessivelyrecur in her entire work. The themes include memory and traces which we leave while we liveand which life leaves on us and on our bodies. It would be naïve to think that in her book, Ernauxconsiders topics which are trivial or even obvious as the method that she uses is quite innovative.Ernaux tells the story of her life, her childhood and adolescence, her marriage and bringing upchildren in the context of preserving her own “self” and in the context of passing on a familytradition. Her existential peregrination, expressed in a fragmented and a-rhetorical form, proceedsagainst the background of an epoch, in which she happens to live (1940-present). Personal andintimate time blends there with common time: Social and historic. The outcome of the blending of these two time orders is the belief that we can learn the truth about our own life and our selves onlythrough contact with the world and other people.