KOMPARATIVISTIKA

Comparative Studies

THE POETICS OF MEMORY IN THE WORKS OF ANNIE ERNAUX

Authors: Abdullayeva Firdavsxon Aʼzamjon qizi

Published: September 05, 2026 • Vol. 11 Issue 12 • Views: 4

This article examines the art of memory in the works of the 2022 Nobel Prize laureate, French writer Annie Ernaux. The aim of the research is to identify the integration of personal experience with the collective past in the authorʼs writing, the literary devices that express this integration, and their aesthetic, social, and ethical foundations. Ernaux renews the traditional boundaries of the autobiographical genre by proposing new forms such as “auto-sociobiography” and “impersonal autobiography,” in which memory is interpreted not as a personal psychological phenomenon but as a socio-historical experience. The research methodology relies on comparative-typological, hermeneutic, and linguopoetic methods, as well as approaches from contemporary memory studies. The authorʼs works “La Place” (1983), “Une Femme” (1987), “La Honte” (1997), “Les Années” (2008), and her 2022 Nobel Lecture were subjected to analysis. The research identified five characteristics of the authorʼs style: the aesthetics of “flat writing,” photographic perception and ekphrasis, the linking of personal memory to the collective past, the layered unfolding of shame and class experience, and an ethical-political stance of “avenging her race.” In conclusion, it was determined that Ernauxʼs poetics offers a new artistic interpretation of the triad of memory, literature, and history, and makes a significant contribution to comparative analyses within the field of memory studies.