MyFrenchLife™ French Book Club: Annie Ernaux, Journal du dehors – January 2018

Calling all Francophiles, lovers of literature, and savvy challenge seekers. Have you ever dreamt of joining a French book club? Well, now’s your chance… Welcome to the MyFrenchLife™ 12-month French Literature Challenge 2018! Every month this year, we challenge you to sit back, relax, and delve into one of in our specially chosen French books!

So, why take part in the MyFrenchLife™ book club?

Each month, we’ll be consulting our French literature expert Contributors to bring you a new and exciting French book review. We promise to dig deep and share our most intimate opinions, interpretations, and perceptions of France’s best literary offerings – and we’d love you to do the same – we’ll follow the reading list together!

Perhaps you can’t resist a challenge.

Maybe you’re still looking for that perfect New Year’s resolution.

Whatever your reason, we challenge you to join us in our 2018 literary crusade – every opinion matters, especially yours.

And… we’re starting with the contemporary Classics, but we’re not necessarily staying there, so stay close and keep reading with us.

Here is the 2018 reading list.

This January, we’re getting the challenge underway with one of our favourite contemporary classics – Annie Ernaux’s ‘Journal du dehors’. So, let’s all pick up our books and let the reading commence!

Join our online book club, join the reading, join the fun and have your voice heard.

Annie Ernaux: a brief synopsis

Annie Ernaux’s ‘Journal du dehors’ is an incredible short diary portraying snapshots from the writer’s life between 1985 and 1992.

Instead of the typical diary format which explores the life and inner feelings of the writer, this diary does as it says on the tin – or should I say cover – as Ernaux records scenes and conversations captured in trains and stations, supermarkets, and the shopping centre in the new post-war town of Cergy-Pontoise.

Ernaux’s preface informs readers that this diary is not an attempt to create a report or a sociological investigation. You may initially disagree with this. Ernaux’s direct and journalistic writing style feels as if you are reading short fragments from a newspaper that may seem, at first, somewhat disjointed.

The diary structure jolts us from “ce soir” straight to “samedi matin” through different events, conversations, and masses of different strangers. It is in this way that Annie Ernaux gives an insight into all walks of life – from the everyday shoppers to the commuters, to the SDFs (sans domicile fixe: homeless people) who everyone appears to be avoiding.

Themes and symbols: contrasting ideas

Yet, it is by far the case that these fragments are chosen at random. Ernaux carefully positions her extracts to juxtapose one another, contrasting with similar and different ideas.

One precise incident of these connections is the representation of hairdressers whose extravagant hairstyles serve as an illustration of their job, which is immediately contrasted by the next paragraph whereby an outrageous homeless man is sitting with his flies left open.

Although at first, the two incidents may appear unrelated, it’s clear that Annie Ernaux is making a precise comparison between how appearance can represent people’s roles in life – as well as commenting on what is deemed as acceptable, and what is not.

This isn’t the only such incident in the text; many of the fragments are positioned to give readers similarly interesting perspectives. These may be easily overlooked by a reader without much time, but any text under 100 pages gives a bibliophile like me plenty to analyse!

Annie Ernaux: an immersive experience

By capturing her outside world, Annie Ernaux claims to depict the collective life of Cergy-Pontoise, finding a part of herself at the same time. Equally, readers can find themselves in Ernaux’s text as well…

• We are the shoppers looking in wonder at our purchases – excited by what we find, worried about what it costs
• we are those who shamefully avoid giving to the poor;
• we are the eavesdroppers of intimate train conversations;
• we are the judges of people and passers-by;
• we are the hopeless consumers, constantly purchasing.

Reading in French: bite-sized chunks

The text’s brief nature is perfect for those who find reading in French difficult. Annie Ernaux describes her writing to be:

une sorte d’écriture photographique du réel [1]

(a sort of photographic writing of reality) – and this couldn’t be a more accurate way of describing the text: snapshots of our everyday lives.

Readers can pick up the text at any page without needing the coherence of a normal story to bring sense to the narrative. Although there are clear connections between the fragments, it’s a perfect way to practise reading modern French in a concise and bite-sized way.

Find a part of yourself in Ernaux’s work as you become the eyes and ears of the writer.

A perfect, page-turning read that will make you wish it was longer!

Curious to delve deeper into the secrets behind Ernaux’s life and literary inspirations? You can tune in to listen to France Culture’s fascinating podcast series here.

[1] Annie Ernaux, Journal du dehors (Paris: Gallimard, 1993) p. 9.

Now it’s your turn – Get involved here.
Let the challenge begin!

Here you will find full details of our 2018 French literature challenge and READING LIST

In true book club fashion, we’re eager to get together – if only virtually – and compare literary notes – below in ‘comments’ and complete the questions in the reading guidance form linked below.

READING GUIDANCE: Book 1 – EN FRANÇAIS CI-DESSOUS: 

Welcome to our My French Life™ French Book Club!! #ReadinginFrench
After the launch of our FIRST BOOK challenge of 2018: Annie Ernaux ‘Journal du dehors’… we would love to hear all of your opinions to kickstart our literary discussion! Please feel free to comment as honestly as possible – there are no right or wrong answers to these questions! Let’s go!!!!  
(En français ou en anglais – https://goo.gl/forms/Ya5qfX3HR0bnz4vx1 )

Bienvenu à toutes et à tous à notre club de lecture ‘My French Life™ French Book Club!!
Après le lancement du premier défi de 2018: Annie Ernaux ‘Journal du dehors’… nous souhaiterions recueillir vos avis sur le roman afin de discuter la littérature française! Merci de répondre le plus franchement possible car il y a une infinité de réponses possible pour chaque question! C’est parti! 
(En français ou en anglais – https://goo.gl/forms/Ya5qfX3HR0bnz4vx1 )

 

Did you enjoy Annie Ernaux’s ‘Journal du dehors’? What did you think of the contrasting imagery? We’d love to hear your thoughts and reflections in the comments box below – here’s where you GET INVOLVED.