Based on recent studies on 'literary meteorology', the article examines depictions of meteorology in Soviet literature. It contextualizes Daniil Granin's Into the Storm (1962) and Anatolii Gladilin's Forecast for tomorrow (1972) within the post-war history of meteorology and reads both texts as examples for a 'popular meteorology', in which important shifts in the Soviet culture of science can be detected. In difference to political readings of late Soviet prose on science, it holds, that literary texts can provide valuable insights into shifts of styles on thinking, the praxeology of science, its anthropological implications and into models of scientific evolution.
Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction. The Vitality of Tradition -- Identity in the Moroccan Context -- Moroccan and Foreign Contexts -- Notes -- Chapter 1. How the West Was Won: The Arab Conqueror and the Serene Amazigh in Driss Chraïbi's La Mère du printemps -- Notes -- Chapter 2. Cultural Encounter in Moroccan Postcolonial Literature of English Expression -- Introduction -- Orientalism and the Ideology of Otherness -- Encountering the Other in Postcolonial Moroccan Texts -- Notes -- Chapter 3. Intersections: Amazigh (Berber) Literary Space -- Amazigh (Berber) Literary Space -- Tamazigh/ Amazigh/ Imazighen in the Maghreb -- Amazigh Literary Space in Morocco and the Netherlands: Novels and Short Stories -- Chleuh -- Tarifit -- Dutch -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Chapter 4. Writing in the Feminine: The Emerging Voices of Francophone Moroccan Women Writers -- Subversive Feminine Writing -- Radical Critiques of Patriarchy -- Oser Vivre (1999) -- Le Corps Derobé (1999) -- La Répudiée (2001) -- Documenting Human Rights Abuses -- "Poème de prison" (1978) -- La Prisonnière (1999) -- Les impunis, ou les obsessions interdites (2004) -- Notes -- Chapter 5. Tactile Labyrinths and Sacred Interiors: Spatial Practices and Political Choices in Abdelmajid Ben Jalloun's Fí al-Tufúla and Ahmed Sefrioui's La boîte à merveilles -- Labryinthine Space in Fí al-Tufúla -- The Sacred Interior in Fí al-Tufúla -- Labryinthine Space in La boîte à merveilles -- The Sacred Interior in La boîte à merveilles -- The Façade in La boîte à merveilles -- The Sacred Interior in Fí al-Tufúla, Again -- Political Spaces in Moroccan Literature -- Notes -- Chapter 6. Monstrous Offspring: Disturbing Bodies in Feminine Moroccan Francophone Literature -- Mythical Silence and Audible Words -- Space and Confinement -- Mother Society, My Torturer?.
Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Plates -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part 1. Study-The Cultural Biography of a Fifteenth-Century Literary Text -- Chapter 1. Contexts: Introducing the ḥaǧǧ, al-Maqrīzī, and al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (Seventh - Fifteenth Centuries) -- 1. The ḥaǧǧ Ritual: Forms, Function, and Religious Meanings -- 2. Pilgriming Rulers and the ḥaǧǧ's Political Meanings in Islamic History -- 3. Cairo Sultans, Meccan Sharifs, and the Late Medieval ḥaǧǧ -- 4. Military Commanders and Religious Scholars between Late Medieval Mecca and Cairo 5. Introducing a Scholar between Late Medieval Cairo, Damascus, and Mecca -- 6. Contextualising al-Maqrīzī's Authorship -- 7. Contextualising al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk -- Chapter 2. Texts: al-Ḏahab al-masbūk between Narratives, Stories, and Meanings -- 1. The ḥaǧǧ in Arabic Writing and Literature: Between fiqh and tārīḫ -- 2. Introducing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Prophet, Caliphs, and Kings between Narratives and Stories -- 3. The Sources of al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Between ḫabar and tarǧamah -- 4. The Meanings of al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Between Author and Ruler Chapter 3. Production, Reproduction, and Consumption: al-Ḏahab al-masbūk's Life and Times (Fifteenth - Twentieth Centuries) -- 1. Producing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (821-841/1418-1438) -- 2. Reproducing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (Sixteenth - Twentieth Centuries) -- 3. Consuming al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: From Memory to History -- Map, Plates and Tables -- Part 2. Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk fī ḏikr man ḥaǧǧa min al-ḫulafāʾ wa-l-mulūk -- Introduction -- Abbreviations and Symbols Edition and Translation of al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk [fī ḏikr man ḥaǧǧa min al-ḫulafāʾ wa-l-mulūk] كتاب الذهب المسبوك [في ذكر من حج من الخلفاء والملوك] The Book of Gold Moulded [in the Format of the Report of Those Caliphs and Kings Who Performed the Ḥaǧǧ] -- Bibliography -- List of Quoted Manuscripts -- Index of Qurʾānic Verses -- Index of Prophetic Traditions -- Index of Verses -- Index of Names (People and Places) -- Index of Quoted Titles in al-Ḏahab al-masbūk -- Index of Sources in al-Ḏahab al-masbūk Facsimile of MS Or. 560 (Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek), fols. 115b-135a ; Jo Van Steenbergen
The subject of the article is the linguistic means of reflecting in a scientific text the personality of its author in terms of, firstly, the communicative intentions of the author, and secondly, the perception of the recipient of this text. The article also considers the degree of objectivity in the construction of a scientific text. It is shown that the image of the author of a scientific text, revealed in terms of the communicative intentions of the sender of the text, and the image of the author, perceived by its recipient, may not coincide. As a theoretical basis of the study, the observations of M.Yu. Fedosyuk about different types of implicit information were used. On the basis of so-called "subtext" implicit information, i.e. information, the transmission of which was a part of the hidden communicative intentions of the sender of the text, the so-called "intentional" image of the author can be deduced. On the basis of so-called "non-text" implicit information, i.e. information, the transmission of which was not included in the communicative intentions of the sender of the text, the "perceptual" image of the author can be deduced. In addition, as a basis for determining the degree of objectivity of the construction of the text the typology of the observer's points of view, developed by B.A. Uspensky, was used. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the coincidence of the intentional and perceptual images of the author testifies to the objectivity of the construction of the text, the discrepancy – to its subjectivity.
Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Plates -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part 1. Study-The Cultural Biography of a Fifteenth-Century Literary Text -- Chapter 1. Contexts: Introducing the ḥaǧǧ, al-Maqrīzī, and al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (Seventh - Fifteenth Centuries) -- 1. The ḥaǧǧ Ritual: Forms, Function, and Religious Meanings -- 2. Pilgriming Rulers and the ḥaǧǧ's Political Meanings in Islamic History -- 3. Cairo Sultans, Meccan Sharifs, and the Late Medieval ḥaǧǧ -- 4. Military Commanders and Religious Scholars between Late Medieval Mecca and Cairo 5. Introducing a Scholar between Late Medieval Cairo, Damascus, and Mecca -- 6. Contextualising al-Maqrīzī's Authorship -- 7. Contextualising al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk -- Chapter 2. Texts: al-Ḏahab al-masbūk between Narratives, Stories, and Meanings -- 1. The ḥaǧǧ in Arabic Writing and Literature: Between fiqh and tārīḫ -- 2. Introducing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Prophet, Caliphs, and Kings between Narratives and Stories -- 3. The Sources of al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Between ḫabar and tarǧamah -- 4. The Meanings of al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: Between Author and Ruler Chapter 3. Production, Reproduction, and Consumption: al-Ḏahab al-masbūk's Life and Times (Fifteenth - Twentieth Centuries) -- 1. Producing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (821-841/1418-1438) -- 2. Reproducing al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (Sixteenth - Twentieth Centuries) -- 3. Consuming al-Ḏahab al-masbūk: From Memory to History -- Map, Plates and Tables -- Part 2. Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk fī ḏikr man ḥaǧǧa min al-ḫulafāʾ wa-l-mulūk -- Introduction -- Abbreviations and Symbols Edition and Translation of al-Maqrīzī's al-Ḏahab al-masbūk [fī ḏikr man ḥaǧǧa min al-ḫulafāʾ wa-l-mulūk] كتاب الذهب المسبوك [في ذكر من حج من الخلفاء والملوك] The Book of Gold Moulded [in the Format of the Report of Those Caliphs and Kings Who Performed the Ḥaǧǧ] -- Bibliography -- List of Quoted Manuscripts -- Index of Qurʾānic Verses -- Index of Prophetic Traditions -- Index of Verses -- Index of Names (People and Places) -- Index of Quoted Titles in al-Ḏahab al-masbūk -- Index of Sources in al-Ḏahab al-masbūk Facsimile of MS Or. 560 (Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek), fols. 115b-135a
Language(s) which the tutorial aims to study or research: English, Spanish.A short summary of the tutorial: This tutorial demonstrates how to use Scalar to create bilingual collaborative editions in the context of teaching bilingual literature. In particular, it focuses on bilingual or even polylingual classrooms wherein students have varied language competencies and fluencies.Summary: Teaching literature in bilingual contexts is challenging, not just in terms of linguistic barriers but also the logistics of texts. For literature teachers who aim to challenge the primacy of Anglophone literature and to bring literature in translation to students, digital tools provide inclusive spaces for students from a range of linguistic standpoints.Using the example of Chicano author Rodolfo 'Corky' Gonzales's epic poem 'I am Joaquín/Yo Soy Joaquín', this tutorial demonstrates how to create a multimodal textbook for teaching the poem in both its original English form and Spanish translation. Chicanx literature, while an established field of literary study, remains a challenging space in teaching and learning given the bilingual, and even polylingual, approaches taken by authors such as Gonzales. Even when the students reading the literature are not bilingual, there is educational value in immersing them in both translated and original versions of texts. For example, translations of 'Joaquín' into Spanish shed light on postcolonial politics of language. The English source text contains code-switching, and different print publications include ephemera such as illustrations, chronologies and so on. The film adaptation offers interesting insights into issues such as the politics of literacy, and the relationship between translation and adaptation. In terms of the content of the poem itself, it is abundant in cultural, political and social histories, historical figures, events and consequences specific to the ChicanX community. Gonzales bypasses dominant white-washed narratives of colonial history in the US–Mexico borderlands. Instead, he privileges figures of Chicanx and Aztec myth and folk history, and retells historical events through a Chicanx gaze.The sheer length and cultural richness of the poem, as well as its versions (English, Spanish, film), make it ideal for exploration in Scalar, where these elements and intricacies can be explored, compared, contrasted and analysed in detail, while at the same time developing students' critical digital literacies. The multimodal, non-linear pathways that can be created in Scalar allow students to explore these issues and draw linguistic and cultural connections. Contemplating how to represent, organise and explore materials using Scalar braids literary and cultural criticism with digital literacy. Informal, playful contact with other languages without the requirement to 'learn' said language can inspire students to take an interest in, and perhaps even pursue, that language.Collaborative editions can unify bilingual cohorts by creating an inclusive translingual digital space where students can read, translate, annotate and communicate. In particular, this tutorial provides guidance on how to build a textbook using a range of content, including text, audio, video, maps, timelines and images. Moreover, this tutorial suggests how teachers can arrange multimedia content into diverse, bilingual narratives that bring the semantic possibilities of Scalar into the pedagogical approaches being used to teach. Pedagogically, this tutorial is rooted in universal design for teaching and learning, translanguaging pedagogies, intersectionality and bell hooks' belief that education is the practice of freedom (4).Difficulty: Medium.Aims: To showcase how Scalar can be used in teaching literature in bilingual contexts, to capture what can get lost in translation in teaching bilingual literature via analogue methods. Demonstrate how translanguaging pedagogy, digital pedagogy and universal design can work together in contemporary teaching and learning contexts.Target audience:Those who teach and learn literature in connection with the study of modern languages;those who want to overcome challenges to teaching in bilingual or even polylingual contexts;those who would like visualise bilingual texts in non-linear, collaborative and intersecting ways;those interested in teaching and learning about the politics of translation using digital tools and methods.This tutorial is suitable for teaching in higher education and second level, especially where there is a focus on research-based and -led teaching and learning.
Utopisch-dystopische Romane der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur widmen sich vermehrt dem Thema Digitalisierung und damit verbundenen Themenkomplexe, Fragestellungen, Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen. Besondere Relevanz kommt dabei der Bewertung und Kategorisierung von Individuen auf Basis von Datenanalysen zu, welche das Leben der Figuren bis ins kleinste Detail lenken und prägen. Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich zunächst der Frage, wie die Texte soziale Kategorisierungs- und Bewertungsmechanismen innerhalb digitalisierter Gesellschaften darstellen und inwiefern sich hier grundlegende kritische Kommentierungen herauslesen lassen. Zudem soll analysiert werden,inwiefern die Texte diese sozialen Positionierungen auch räumlich realisieren, ausgehend von der These, dass die Texte raumsemantische Strukturen nutzen, um Gefahrenpotenziale für die Freiheit und Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten des Einzelnen herauszustellen. Als theoretische Basis fungieren dabei Michel Foucaults Theorie der Gouvernementalität, sowie die von Gilles Deleuze und Felix Guattari entwickelte Theorie des glatten und gekerbten Raumes. Literarische Beispiele sind den Romanen "Qualityland" (2017) von Marc-Uwe Kling, "Die Hochhausspringerin" (2018) von Julia von Lucadou und "Technophoria" (2020) von Niklas Maak entnommen. ; Utopian-dystopian novels in contemporary German literature are increasingly devoted to the topic of digitalization and its related fields, as well as the questions, hopes and fears it entails. Of particular interest in this context is the evaluation and categorization of individuals based on data analyzes, which guide and shape the lives of the characters down to the smallest detail. The present work initially poses the question of how the texts represent social categorization and evaluation mechanisms within digitalized societies and to what extent these developments are critically commented on. The second part will then focus on the fact that these texts tend to realize this social positioning spatially and thereby use spatial-semantic structures to highlight potential dangers for the freedom and development possibilities of the individual. Michel Foucault's theory of governmentality and the theory of smooth and striated space developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari serve as the theoretical basis here. Literary examples are taken from the novels "Qualityland" (2017) by Marc-Uwe Kling, "Die Hochhausspringerin" (2018) by Julia von Lucadou and "Technophoria" (2020) by Niklas Maak.
This article argues that the study of literary Europeanism should be extended to the discourse of wider textual Europeanism, understood here as a digital Europeanism that examines digital texts, in the widest sense, contextualised within the norms of digital culture. The texts emanating on the platform Twitter from two explicitly pro-European/pro-European Union accounts, one German-language and one largely (non-native) anglophone – @PulseofEurope and @mycountryeurope – were examined from 9 May 2021 to 9 November 2021. In evidence was a type of textual Europeanism that indeed owes a degree of coherence to the norms of digital culture. This was seen in relation to referentiality, that is, the use of already existing and circulating cultural materials for one's own cultural production. This was evident in commented and uncommented retweets, social TV practices and the Europeanisation of Internet memes. The creation of a sense of communality – the way in which meanings can be stabilised, options for action generated and resources made accessible via a collectively supported frame of reference – is also in evidence and to be seen in the distinct discursive creation of an authoritarian 'other'. This 'other' consists of a temporal 'other' – a small number of tweets relating to authoritarianisms of the past; an inner-European Union 'other' – tweets relating to movements towards authoritarianism within the European Union, especially in Hungary and Poland; and an external European Union other – tweets relating to authoritarianism on the European Union's borders, especially in Belarus and Russia.
A good deal of the work on literature in the North Indian vernaculars over the last decades has been, perhaps out of necessity, somewhat narrowly philological. This volume, however, marks a new stage of collective development in the field. Any scholar interested in current directions in South Asian humanities should find the papers exciting. Tellings and Texts, however, is much more than the sum of its parts. Indeed, it is hard to express how well put-together this volume is. Much too often edited books even on a fairly well-defined topic consist of separate chapters that appear mostly independent of one another, with section divisions that seem somewhat forced and not particularly coherent. This volume, by contrast, really does read as a well-executed whole, with the papers referencing one another generously and a progression from one nicely conceived section to the next. — Daniel Gold, Professor of South-Asian Religions, Cornell University Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Textsbrings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region. The texts and practices are contextualized in relation to the broader social and political background in which they emerged, showing how religious affiliations, caste dynamics and political concerns played a role in shaping social identities as well as aesthetic sensibilities. By doing so this book sheds light into theoretical issues of more general significance, such as textual versus oral norms; the features of oral performance and improvisation; the role of the text in performance; the aesthetics and social dimension of performance; the significance of space in performance history and important considerations on repertoires of story-telling. The book also ...
Literature transforms the subject because its raw material is words and imagination, two issues that operate in the human being for an adequate development of its reality. By sharing these elements, what we will call the infinite bifurcated consciousness emerges because the purpose of literature is to reveal possible worlds. Rhizomatic thinking is proposed as a method to evidence the complicities and possible articulations that exist between literature and performativity. This article does not try to exhaust the analytical potential, but rather to leave the door open for future explorations, reflections, or texts. In general, in literature during the XXI century, the role of performativity in the subject and its incidence in what is political is discovered. The activism of today's world, both in its face-to-face and virtual versions (social networks), indicates the close relationship between aesthetics (including literature and fiction) and politics. ; La literatura transforma al sujeto porque tiene como materia prima la palabra y la imaginación, dos cuestiones que operan en el ser humano para su adecuado desarrollo de realidad. Al compartir estos elementos, se presenta lo que llamamos la conciencia bifurcada infinita, porque la función de la literatura es revelar mundos posibles. Se propone el pensamiento rizomático como método para evidenciar las complicidades y articulaciones posibles que ocurren entre literatura y performatividad. El presente artículo no intenta agotar el potencial analítico, sino dejar abierta la puerta para futuras exploraciones, reflexiones o textos. En general, en la literatura, durante el siglo XXI, se descubre el papel de lo performativo en el sujeto y su incidencia en lo político. El activismo propio del mundo de hoy, en su versión tanto presencial como virtual (redes sociales), nos indica la estrecha relación entre lo estético (incluida la literatura y la ficción) y lo político.
The literary heritage of an influential German writer and academical literary critic of the late twentieth century W.G. Sebald (1944–2001) is considered in relation to the essential features of Austrian literature (as a special phenomenon) identified by N.S. Pavlova, and in the context of its important topics. The article traces Sebald's rise as an outstanding prose writer in parallel with how his interest as an academic Germanist was focusing on the work of Austrian writers (from Adalbert Stift er, 1805–1868, to Peter Handke, b. 1942), how he was familiarizing himself with fundamentals of their worldview (distrust of reality; lack of confidence in the state, homeland and the language; deep intimacy with 'things'; dominance of sensation over judgment) and acute topics (physical and mental pain, illness, homelessness, isolation). Some pieces of Sebald's prose are compared here to the work of the Austrian writers (Franz Kafka and Th omas Bernhard in particular) to study his extremely mobile and multi-layered perspective of narration, which is characteristic for all his texts and lies at the core of the specifics of his literary style. The article aims not only to show some important features of Sebald's prose (the multilevel mediation of perspective, 'network structures' within the text) in their connection to Austrian literature of the last two centuries, but also to demonstrate that they were formed largely due to his deep understanding of this literature.
The Estonian poet, physician and politician Johannes Vares-Barbarus (1890–1946) is a contradictory figure in Estonian history and culture. He was a well-known and acknowledged doctor named Vares, but also a poet named Barbarus who was notable for his modernistic poems in the 1920s and 1930s. His actions in the 1940s as one of the leading figures in the Sovietization of Estonia have complicated the reception of his poetry. His opposition to the Republic of Estonia and his left-wing views are nearly always under observation when he or his poems are discussed. Predominantly his poetry has been discussed; his other works have received much less attention. This article analyses his travelogue Matkavisandeid & mõtisklusi (Travel Sketches and Contemplations) based on his trip to the Soviet Union. It was published in the literary magazine Looming in 1935 and reprinted in 1950 in his collected works. Travelogues have proven to be valuable materials when discussing the author and his mentality. The article analyses the image of the Soviet Union in his travelogue published in 1935 and discusses notable changes that were made in the reprint some of which have significantly altered the meaning, so that the text fits perfectly into the Soviet canon.
This dissertation "Between Text and Sect: Early Nineteenth Century Shifts in the Theology of Ram", focuses on the two primary facets of Ram devotion in North India. The cult of Ram, which is not only central to the practice of modern Hinduism but is also the lynchpin of Hindu nationalist politics, emerged as a major devotional tradition in sixteenth century North India. The Ram tradition was propelled by two primary forces - the famous devotional composition of Tulsidas, the "Ramcharitmanas" and the rapidly expanding monastic community, the Ramanandi sect. Modern scholarship on Ram devotion has either tended to treat each facet separately or has simply assumed that the text forms the theological core of the sect. My research shows that although text and sect emerged almost simultaneously in the sixteenth century, they represented distinct theologies until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when they were united under the patronage of a rising Hindu polity. My dissertation focuses on the earliest literary-theological link between the "Ramcharitmanas" and the Ramanandi sect. Through a study of early sectarian commentaries, I show how the Ramanandis shaped the contours of the Ram tradition by incorporating their distinct theology into the "Ramcharitmanas". The sectarian adoption of the devotional text, and the spurt in the production of exegetical literature among other genres, highlights the centrality of literary cultures to the formation of the Ram devotional community in early modern North India. This project thus not only makes an intervention into the history of Ram devotion, but also has wider implications for the study of the formation of modern Hindu religious traditions.
Mediterranean studies flourish in literary and cultural studies, but concepts of the Mediterranean and the theories and methods they use are very disparate. This is because the Mediterranean is not a simple geographical or historical unity, but a multiplicity, a network of highly interconnected elements, each of which is different and individual. Talking about Mediterranean literature raises the question of whether the connectivity of Mediterranean literature can or should be limited in some way by constructing an inside and an outside of the Mediterranean. What kind of connectivity and fragmentation do literary texts produce, how do they build and interrupt references (to the real, to fictional forms of representation, to history, but also to other texts and discourses), how do they create and deny communication, and how do they engage with and reflect literary and non-literary concepts of the Mediterranean? These and other questions are considered and discussed in the over twenty contributions gathered in this volume. ; Mediterranean studies flourish in literary and cultural studies, but concepts of the Mediterranean and the theories and methods they use are very disparate. This is because the Mediterranean is not a simple geographical or historical unity, but a multiplicity, a network of highly interconnected elements, each of which is different and individual. Talking about Mediterranean literature raises the question of whether the connectivity of Mediterranean literature can or should be limited in some way by constructing an inside and an outside of the Mediterranean. What kind of connectivity and fragmentation do literary texts produce, how do they build and interrupt references (to the real, to fictional forms of representation, to history, but also to other texts and discourses), how do they create and deny communication, and how do they engage with and reflect literary and non-literary concepts of the Mediterranean? These and other questions are considered and discussed in the over twenty contributions gathered in this volume.
Numéro coordonné par Émilie Brière, Mélanie Lamarre et Dominique Viart ; National audience ; At the end of Une femme, a narrative published in 1988 recounting the life of her mother (translation : A Woman' Story, Seven Stories Press, 1991), Annie Ernaux states: "This is not a biography, nor a novel of course", but a work deliberately situated "below literature, [.] somewhere between literature, sociology and history". To qualify the self-reflexive texts she has published since 1974 in the Blanche collection at Gallimard, the writer refuses any pre-established generic classification and prefers to speak of "forms". The quest for a "right" form for her texts being at the very heart of her indissociably literary, social and political reflection, she has come to invent the labels of "transpersonal narratives" or "ethnotexts" to specifically evoke her two "extimate" diaries: Journal du dehors, published in 1993 (translation : Exteriors, Seven Stories Press, 1996), and its sequel, La Vie extérieure, published in 2000 (Things seen, University of Nebraska Press, 2010), both of which hijack the consecrated form of the diary.Deepening this distinctive literary approach, based on the art of reconciling opposites, Annie Ernaux proposes a new label in the form of an oxymoron, that of "collective" or "impersonal" autobiography, to qualify the specific narrative project of Les Années, published in 2008 (translation : The Years, Seven Stories Press, 2017), which many commentators present as her "life's work", her "masterpiece". Far away from the reception of her previous books, the near-unanimity of the critical praise - which, once again, no doubt disoriented by the form of the text, calls up in no particular order a number of illustrious, albeit not very coherent, filiations (from Beauvoir to Proust, via Maupassant and Pérec, not forgetting Genêt, Leiris, Nizan, Pavese, Chekhov and Woolf. ) - is combined with immediate public success (around 115,000 copies sold after six reprints). I have sought to understand the modalities ...
