Is Annie Ernaux's work considered purely autobiographical?
While my work draws heavily on my own life, it is not merely autobiography. I coined the term 'auto-sociobiography' to describe my project. My experiences—of class ascension, of gendered expectations, of significant life events—are always viewed through a sociological lens. I am interested in how the personal is shaped by the collective, how individual lives reflect broader social phenomena. The shame I felt in a classroom, for example, is not just a personal failing but a manifestation of class betrayal. My aim is to extract the social from the personal, the structural from the intimate, demonstrating that our individual stories are deeply embedded in larger historical and social contexts.
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