Non-own" speech about oneself: another's word in the autobiographical writing of Nathalie Sarraute and Annie Ernaux

Abstract

The aim of the research is to determine how verbatim quoted speech of others becomes, in the autobiographical prose of Nathalie Sarraute and Annie Ernaux, a means of constructing an autobiographical subject lacking trust in the classical tradition of self-narrative. The material comprised Sarraute's novella "Childhood" and Ernaux's novels "A Man's Place" and "A Woman's Story", in which key episodes are organized around verbatim preserved remarks of parents and relatives. The appeal to another's word is motivated, according to the research hypothesis, by a distrust of the classical autobiographical tradition, which is common to both writers. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, a systematic comparison of Sarraute's and Ernaux's prose is undertaken from the perspective of working with another's speech, whereas in existing studies this parallel has only been outlined. In Sarraute's work, a remark triggers a tropism, and this function is for the first time linked by us to the dialogic structure of the narrative, in which a second instance verifies the authenticity of the memory. In Ernaux's work, the remarks contain a reflection of the heroine's social environment and her strategies for working with family history (in particular, the impersonal style), which are explored for the first time from the perspective of changes from the novel "A Man's Place" to the novel "A Woman's Story". As a result, it was established that the rejection of classical autobiography turns out to be not a refusal of the process of remembering as such, but changes within it. The autobiographical subject is created not through the narrator's personal story about themselves, but through the "non-own" speech of loved ones.

Research materials

1. Саррот Н. Детство: повесть. Иваново: Полинформ, 1995. https://www.rulit.me/books/detstvo-zolotye-plody-read-181334-1.html
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6. Ernaux A. La Place. P.: Gallimard, 1983.
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10. Ernaux A. Retour à Yvetot. P.: Éditions du Mauconduit, 2022.
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About this article

Publication history

• Received: July 12, 2026.
• Published: August 31, 2026.

Keywords

• чужое слово в художественной прозе
• автобиографический субъект
• автобиографический пакт
• тропизмы Натали Саррот
• безличный стиль Анни Эрно
• another's word in fiction
• autobiographical subject
• autobiographical pact
• Nathalie Sarraute's tropisms
• Annie Ernaux's impersonal style

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