Description
Book SynopsisLooking at questions of testimony, confession, trauma,sexuality, and violence in (semi-) autobiographical works, this book explores the co-construction of personal and collectiveidentities by women writers in the age of self-disclosure and mass media. In a time when literature is accused of being self-centeredand overly narcissistic, women's
autofiction in France since the turn of the millennium has been received with controversy because it disrupts readily accepted ideas about personal and national identities, gender and race, and fiction
versus
autobiography. Through the study of polemical writers Christine Angot, Chloé Delaume, and Nelly Arcan, Mercédès Baillargeon contendsthat, by recounting personal stories of trauma and sexuality, and thus opposing themselves in opposition to social convention, and by refusing to dispel doubtsregarding the fictional or factual nature of their texts,
autofiction resists and helps redefine categories of literary genreand gender identity. This book analyzes concurrently the textual and sociopolitical implications that underlie the (de)construction of the
autofictional subject, and particularly how these writers constantly redefine themselves through performance andself-fashioning made possible by media and technology. Moreover, this workraises important questions relating to the media's complicated relationship with women writers, especially those who discuss themes of trauma, sexuality,and violence, and who also question the distinction between fact and fiction. Proposing a new understanding of
autofiction as a form of
littérature engagée, this work contributes to a broader understanding of the French publishing establishment and, of the literary field as a cultural institution, as well asnew insight on shifting notions of identity, the Self and nationalism intoday's ever-changing and multicultural French context.
Table of Contents
- Remerciements
- Introduction: L'autofiction contemporaine des femmes: scandale,
- posture et imposture
- PREMIÈRE PARTIE: CHRISTINE ANGOT: VICTIME OU MARTYRE?
- Chapitre un: Autofiction, métafiction et personnage médiatique chez Christine Angot
- Chapitre deux: Lecture, provocation et scandale dans L'Inceste: déjouer le lecteur
- Chapitre trois: Quitter la ville: naissance d'une tragédie?
- DEUXIÈME PARTIE: CHLOÉ DELAUME: LA VICTIME ENFIN BOURREAU
- Chapitre quatre: L'autofiction expérimentale de Chloé Delaume
- Table des matières
- Chapitre cinq: Les Mouflettes d'Atropos: l'individu dans le collectif
- Chapitre six: Le Cri du sablier: déconstruire les fictions individuelles
- Chapitre sept: La Vanité des somnambules, ou le rapport au lecteur
- TROISIÈME PARTIE: PARI MANQUÉ? NELLY ARCAN, LES MÉDIAS ET LE DESTIN TRAGIQUE D'UNE ÉCRIVAINE
- Chapitre huit: Le pacte auto/métafictionnel chez Nelly Arcan
- Chapitre neuf: Miroir, narcissisme et projection
- Chapitre dix: "La honte": postface
- Conclusion: Engagement, médias et nouveaux médias Bibliographie
- Index
