‘1974-2024: Annie Ernaux’s Years – a Global Perspective’

International Conference

Edinburgh & St Andrews

3-5 October 2024

 

Conference programme here

 

With Annie Ernaux’s participation (online interview)

Confirmed keynote speaker: Prof. Barbara Havercroft, University of Toronto

 

Conference abstract

Annie Ernaux’s writings have gained increasing international attention in recent years, especially since the English translation of Les Années (The Years), seen by many as her masterwork, was published in 2017 and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019. The global reach of her works culminated in the award of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature ‘for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory’. This prestigious prize, that she was the first French female writer to receive, anchored her status as a major 20th and 21st-century author and instantly brought her global fame – she was for instance the guest of honour at the New Delhi world book fair in 2023.

Most of Ernaux’s writings are non-fictional and depict the life experiences of a French woman born in 1940, as much as an experience of Frenchness across genders, social classes and generations. Yet, despite being situated in a specific time, space and in personal experience, critics and readers have often commented on the universal reach of her works. Fifty years after the publication of Les Armoires vides (Cleaned Out) in 1974, her debut autobiographical novel partly based on her back-alley abortion in the 1960s, this conference aims to interrogate the universal dimension of Ernaux’s books and locate them in an international context, assessing the significance of her writings beyond the French-speaking world.

As more translations of her books become available, this event seeks to broaden the scope of academic criticism on her works and shed light on her links with past and contemporary world literature, by examining her influences and legacy as a writer and public intellectual figure. Although the scholarship on Annie Ernaux emerged in the English-speaking world in the 1980s, this event is the first international, solely English-speaking conference focusing on her work.

 

Conference report

Co-organised by Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger and Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce, the international conference ‘1974-2024: Annie Ernaux’s Years – a Global Perspective’ was the first English-speaking conference devoted to the works of 2022 Nobel-Prize laureate Annie Ernaux, whose first book Cleaned out was published half a century ago. With nearly forty speakers coming from across the world, the conference was the opportunity to discuss the global reach of Ernaux’s work and the universal dimension of her autobiographical writings.

The conference opened at the French Institute in Edinburgh with a screening of The Super 8 Years, a plenary lecture on ‘Trauma and agency’ by Prof. Barbara Havercroft (University of Toronto) and a livestream discussion with Annie Ernaux who reflected on the evolution of her writing since #metoo. The second day of the conference, at the University of Edinburgh, included a round table bringing together the voices of Ernaux’s English and German translators, Alison Strayer (who provided written notes before the event) and Sonja Finck, with eminent Ernaux scholar Lyn Thomas (the author of the first monograph in English on Ernaux) and interpreter Julia Hartley. It also featured two creative responses (a reading and a performance) to Ernaux’s work; stimulating postgraduate plenary panels on intersectional readings and abortion stories; and a screening of Audrey Diwan’s Happening. The third and final day of the conference, at the University of St Andrews, included a range of panels on topics such as consumerism, ageing, the creative process, life-writing forms, and text-image dialogues. The day ended with the award of the best postgraduate paper (sponsored by Women in French UK-Ireland) to Sophie Feng (University of Toronto) for her paper entitled ‘On life-writing as Maieutics: Feminist praxis and a poetics of telling in L’Événement (Happening)’. The conference closed with the launch of the art exhibition ‘Palimpself’, at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews. The exhibition consists of new visual work by artist Susan Diab made in response to reading Ernaux, and exploring visual and material representation of memory.

 

 

[Photo credit: Elise Hugueny-Léger]

 

The organisers would like to thank the sponsors who made this event possible:

• Ambassade de France au Royaume-Uni
• Institut Francais d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
• SELF – Société d’étude de la littérature de langue française du XXe et du XXIe siècles
• The Society for French Studies
• The University of St Andrews Impact and Innovation fund
• School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh – Impact fund
• WIF (Women in French)-UK-Ireland