The Years (Annie Ernaux)

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The Years is an autobiography by the French writer Annie Ernaux . The work, published in France in 2008 under the title Les années and in German in 2017, describes the years from around 1941, the first year of her life, to the beginning of the 21st century. Recurring themes are their physical development and sexual experiences, family, marriage and divorce, studies, work and feminism , an outline of politics and the fascination of consumption in France in the second half of the 20th century. When she was in her early twenties, she first had the idea of ​​a novel project, the late realization of which is the present autobiography. This caused quite a stir because of its experimental form of describing a woman's biography as an "impersonal autobiography".

Narrative strategies

Most noticeable is the complete abandonment of the personal pronoun "I", which would make the protagonist famous in an autobiography. Ernaux comes closest to the still identifying use of “a girl” or “she”, while the main character is pushed back more and more into personal indeterminacy with the pluralizing “we” and the neutralizing “one”. Since this “we” could mean their family or friends or like-minded people or women or French etc., the renunciation of the ego obscures the attribution of attitudes and political views, of decisions and maturation processes to the main person. The basic narrative principle not only conceals the actual object of interest beyond recognition, but also all other influences from her circle that may be important for her development: Ernaux repeatedly mentions her lifelong shyness, which she attributes to her shame of origin as a result of her poor parents' home; she was sure “that she has no ´personality´.” But her project idea also contained “a single existence that is absorbed in the movement of an entire generation”, which she later calls an “impersonal autobiography”.

A complementary strategy is to refrain from creating meaning. As a child and adolescent, Ernaux experienced the vivid, adventurous and sometimes heroic stories of the older generation of the family about war and the post-war upswing, which drew their listeners into a certain worldview and led them to imitate them. In contrast, Ernaux's narration is almost exclusively chronological, additive and avoids causal relationships or explanations for developments. The photos taken at individual stages in life, “still images of memory”, are first described with regard to what is immediately visible and then contextualized biographically at certain points; and in order to avoid patronizing meaningfulness, she repeatedly and demonstratively joins her memories together without orderly punctuation.

This biographical micro perspective is shown e.g. B. in the topoi of the political. Although she was not interested in politics from an early age, she nonetheless became a member of the French Socialist Party. Instead of reporting on discussions, power relations and decisions on decolonization, on nationalism, racism and western arrogance, almost only brief facts and moods from the world of a we-subject are presented; so here, too, it is not always clear which convictions she shares personally. In this distance, the topoi of the suddenness of political developments, the irrelevance of politics for everyday life and the general rapid fatigue with political issues arise - but these topoi could also be figures of an irony concealing the views of the person . On the other hand, the increasing consumption of the post-war period and advertising are a fascination that is described in detail again and again: “The products appeared like in a fairy tale.” “Consumption replaced the ideals of 1968” and becomes the basis of a certainty of progress that is ultimately based on one's own Body focused.

In this autobiography without a protagonist, the events are narrated as experiences that fit chronologically into a phase of life, but usually occur uninfluenced by the main character and unpredictable for them. For this technique of documenting the disparate, Ernaux finds the terms “panorama” and “inventories”, the multiple used lists of event headlines and objects. For her, this type of representation is both an experiment in arranging memories and holding on to the foreseeable fate of forgetting and becoming forgotten, which is already mentioned in the dedication.

Ernaux wanted to write a "total novel" that should end with "that she renounces people and things until nothing is left." That is why she observes her "double", the "different" me "", from a distance , like a passerby of her own life in a stream of depersonalized influences and events - and thus writes a fascinating cultural history . It remains to be seen whether this radical renewal of form and content of the subject of the autobiography will catch on.

reception

Annie Ernaux is regarded as "one of the most formative voices in contemporary French literature". She is received positively in the university environment and her work is the subject of numerous academic papers. In literary criticism, her work is predominantly received positively, while individual voices judge it as "displaying misery" or "banal and unbelievable presumption".

The literary quartet from the Frankfurt Book Fair had a. a. Annie Ernaux's work The Years on the subject. Volker Weidermann , Christine Westermann and guest Johannes Willms spoke out in favor of the book, Thea Dorn against. Willms, who presented the text, called it a “sociography”, a story of emancipation as a woman and a provincial girl who is training as a teacher in Paris. He recommended the "exciting reading". Christine Westermann related the text to her own childhood and youth and described it as a journey through time into her own life. For Volker Weidermann, Die Jahre bis 1989 is a “book of departure” that grabbed him after initial irritation. In the discussion, Thea Dorn clearly opposed the use of the “man” instead of the “I” by Ernaux. The “quasi sociological” instead of literary book is political, left-wing and post-structural . She complained that, according to Ernaux, a girl from a small family in the provinces should not have any subjectivity. Michael Kuhlmann analyzed the author's language on Südwestfunk and pointed out the translator's work, which made the book worth reading. An interview by Beate Tröger with Sonja Finck about the requirements for this translation was published in the weekly newspaper Der Freitag . The Wiener Zeitung calls the German version impressive as a translation . According to Magnus Klaue, Ernaux succeeds in Die Jahre what Eribon only promised when he returned to Reims : “the happy alliance of autobiography and historiography.” According to Christoph Vormweg, it is a “provocative call for self-reflection.” He quotes Ernaux's intention, "To save something from the time in which one will never be again."

Michael Kuhlmann praises the German translation:

"The translator Sonja Finck has here (sc. When translating the French" on ") sensed Ernaux's slightly distant storytelling precisely and translated it precisely into German ... Finck translated the novel into German with sensitivity, sometimes translating it a little more freely, sometimes something is added carefully so that the German reader understands the cultural context better. "

- SWR2 manuscript: "Worth reading. Criticism." November 13, 2017

Ruth Fühner from Hessischer Rundfunk summarizes:

“Ernaux is a writer for whom the private has always been political; and it has always been about arranging her own inner life in a larger horizon. Writing is a revolt against what she does not like in this era. "

- hr-2 culture, 2017

Louise Voigt, the producer of the radio play, names her reason for producing this award-winning work:

“The life story of the author is put together using very vivid examples: schoolyard scenes, family get-togethers, fashions, consumer behavior, linguistic quirks, political events and, time and again, the changing way of dealing with sexuality, starting from her childhood in provincial France through to current time. The review of one's own life condenses through the multitude of very finely observed details, despite the individual source material, to a sociological view of the second half of the 20th century, which can also be transferred to local conditions, detached from the French context. Ernaux also tells her growing up as a story of emancipation. Within the constraints of the respective historical circumstances, it shows the challenge of shaping one's own life. "

- Louise Voigt :

expenditure

Scientific representations

literature

radio play

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annie Ernaux, The Years . Translated from the French by Sonja Finck. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2017 ISBN 978-3-518-22502-8
  2. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 253 .
  3. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 91 .
  4. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 188 .
  5. ↑ See document No. 2
  6. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 20th ff., 24, 29, 59 f .
  7. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 253 .
  8. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 91; later also 226, 228 .
  9. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 110 .
  10. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 76, 140, 149 f., 182 .
  11. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 91, 97, 104, 113, 127, 130, 140, 170, 191 f., 203, 242 .
  12. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 153, 169 f., 180, 182, 189, 191 f., 197, 203, 219 f .
  13. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 130, 171, 200, 220, 227, 236, 242 .
  14. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 41 .
  15. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 122 .
  16. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 92 f., 133 f., 156, 160, 193 f., 207 ff., 229 ff., 240 f .
  17. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 251 .
  18. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 103, 187; 136, 144 f., 148, 167 ff., 200 f., 246 f .
  19. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 166, 236 f .
  20. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 7, 9 f., 12 f., 17, 148 f., 187, 215, 243, 250 f., 256 .
  21. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 166 .
  22. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 91 .
  23. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 216, 248 .
  24. ↑ Annie Ernaux: The Years . 2017, p. 252 .
  25. ↑ Annie Ernaux: A work on the pulse of time. University of Freiburg , accessed on October 18, 2017 .
  26. ^ Annie Ernaux: Documentation critique. (No longer available online.) Auteurs contemporains. Bibliography, archived from the original on July 2, 2011 ; accessed on October 18, 2017 .
  27. ^ Grégoire Leménager: Annie Ernaux: "Je voulais venger ma race". L'Obs , December 15, 2011, accessed October 18, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Michael Kuhlmann in the swr2 series worth reading: Annie Ernaux, Die Jahre, SWR2 , November 13, 2017, the station has put the manuscript online
  29. ↑ Beate Tröger: “Thinking from death.” We spoke to the German translator . Friday, November 16, 2017, p. 17
  30. ^ Lost Depth of Time , Wiener Zeitung , October 7, 2017
  31. ↑ Magnus Klaue: Still pictures. In: jungle. Supplement to Jungle World , No. 51–52, December 21, 2017, p. 10f, online , January 2, 2018
  32. ↑ Christoph Vormweg: Annie Ernaux: "The Years." Provocative invitation to self-reflection. Deutschlandfunk , audio and print, January 15, 2018
  33. ^ Page Voigts
  34. ↑ The piece was nominated for the ARD German Radio Play Award 2019