Annie Ernaux, Class, Gender and Whiteness

This article attempts to identify the innovative qualities of the writing of Annie Ernaux, and their continuing relevance for feminisms. It discusses both the new literary forms and styles she creates, and the extent to which her writing contributes to the work of intersectionality in its representation of class, gender, sexuality, ‘race’ and ethnicity. The exceptional nature of Ernaux's foregrounding of social class in the French context, and its troubling nature, perhaps in a broader sense, is discussed through an analysis of its impact on the shape and style of the writing. There is some discussion of Ernaux's popularity in France as a writer and of the critical attention she receives in France and in university French departments abroad. The article raises the question of Ernaux's absence from the canon of French feminist works created by anglophone feminist theorists, and taken up by university departments of English and critical theory

Art · Epistemology · Feminism · Foregrounding · Human sexuality · Intersectionality · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

• Annie Ernaux à l’international

  Open Access•Élise Hugueny-Léger•COnTEXTES. Revue de sociologie de…•2025

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• Formations of Class and Gender

  Beverley Skeggs, Bev Skeggs et al.•Formations of class and gender•2002

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• Feminist Review

  Open Access•Gail Lewis•Feminist Review•2005

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• New French Feminisms

  Winnie Woodhull, Elaine Marks et al.•SubStance•1980

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• Insider Perspectives or Stealing the Words out of Women's Mouths

  Diane Reay•Feminist Review•1996

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• De corps à corps. Réceptions croisées d'Annie Ernaux

  Isabelle Charpentier•Politix•1994

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