Annie Ernaux as a reader, or the genesis of a female writer: from Emma Bovary to Gustave Flaubert

Author(s)

  • Justine Muller Université Catholique de Louvain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51777/relief18420

Keywords:

Annie Ernaux, reading, Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the essential role reading has played in the genesis of Annie Ernaux as a female writer. Two different kinds of books shape her itinerary as a reader: on the one hand, popular literature intended for a female readership, and promoting escapism and bovarysme; on the other hand, works of ‘legitimate’ or ‘high’ literature that lead every reader, no matter his or her gender, to a self-hermeneutics. The origins of Ernaux’s desire to write lie in both kinds of books, which will always be involved in her writing process. This is why one can observe how, from a first identification with Emma Bovary, Ernaux gradually turns into Flaubert, an author she greatly appreciates and considers one of her influences.

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Author Biography

  • Justine Muller, Université Catholique de Louvain

    Justine Muller is currently a PhD student in French literature at the Université catholique de Louvain. Her doctoral dissertation analyzes how Simone de Beauvoir and Annie Ernaux have developed literary poetics of themselves based on the various and lasting male influences they faced in their intellectual and intimate lives. She is more broadly interested in the work of contemporary Belgian and French female writers. She is the author of papers published, among others, in Simone de Beauvoir Studies and Les Lettres romanes.

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Published

2023-12-14

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2023): Is a woman a reader like any other ?

Section

Thematic Dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Justine Muller

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

All articles published in RELIEF appear in Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Under this licence, authors retain ownership of the copyright of their article, but they allow its unrestricted use, provided it is properly cited.

How to Cite

Muller, J. (2023) “Annie Ernaux as a reader, or the genesis of a female writer: from Emma Bovary to Gustave Flaubert”, RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 17(2), pp. 23–36. doi:10.51777/relief18420.