An autobiography and an Identity

Abstract

Annie Ernaus who knows well the autobiographical pact in Modern Literature not only systematically excludes the "1" which is one of the signs of the identity in Lcs Annees but also introduces her own literary pact. Thus her work does not contain the sign of any literary genre (diary, autobiography, bibliography, memory, novel, narration). In her own autobiography, being the subject (1) of enunciation, Ernaux appears in two axes: the first one is the narrator who excludes the "I." In contrast to the "I" which shows more durability, restriction and anguish, "she" expresses the outside and the remoteness. In the second axis of identity, the narrator of Les Annees always expresses herself by means of "us" and "they." With the rejection of "I," Ernaux distances herself from her autobiography which enables her to evaluate herself and to have a view of herself from the outside. By adopting the speaking language and discourse on different levels, Ernaux aims to realise "the narration of the previous day." The reader witnesses the identiy creation of an unnamed "she" who observes her own metamorphosis in time in French society and through pictures. The author, willing to express "thousands of days until present" which she also lived "did not have enough time to join together mental moments of being."