Political of feminist auto\ Ethnography; personal as political in annie ernaus's a woman's story

Abstract

This thesis delves into the inseparability of individual and the social in Annie Ernaux’s A Woman‟s Story that can be approached as auto/ethnographical text/ auto-socio-biographique (Ernaux’s own concept). She brings more sociologically grounded style by diverging from French Feminist thought of 1980s though she writes in the same period. She gives emphasis on identity which is shaped not only by gender, but also by a complex interplay of class status, sexual orientation and so on. This study also explores the dynamics of gender and class through the author and her mother’s shared history within the broader socio-political and historical context of the twentieth century France. She also raises the political issue of returning to origin through mental homecoming to her working class root. She also addresses cultural memory in the name of individual memory while narrating her own and her mother’s story of double exploitation and class based humiliation. Additionally, this thesis examines Ernaux’s balance of ethical and moral relations, that is, writing her mother’s and her own story within the ethical frame of mother-daughter relationship to, addressing all collective working class women of her mother’s generation and community. Furthermore, this study situates itself within the broader framework of feminist auto/ethnographic and philosophical theory of Marilyn Metta, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson and Luce Irigaray respectively. It concludes that A Woman‟s Story bears the politics of feminist auto/ethnography, that is, personal as political by depicting personal stories are shaped by, and reflect, social conditions. Keywords: autoethnography, ethics, politics, identity, voicing the voiceless, cultural memory, return to origin