French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e)

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AWIT Carole

Title

French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e)

Author(s)

AWIT Carole | Issue Writer Certificate

Keywords

French key word:Couple bourgeois

Genre (gender)

Inégalités hommes-femmes

Normes sociales

Travail domestique (English key word:Bourgeois couple

Gender inequality

Social norms

Domestic work)

Abstract

French abstract: Dans son ré cit à inspiration autobiographique La Femme gelé e, Annie Ernaux donne la parole à un personnage fé minin qui fait, au quotidien, l’ expé rience douloureuse des rapports iné gaux entre les hommes et les femmes. La narration, suivant le passage chronologique de l’ enfance à l’ â ge adulte, permet de rendre compte du renversement du destin d’ une jeune fille avide de liberté qui se retrouve, une fois marié e, isolé e du monde et alié né e par un rô le social traditionnel. Publié en 1981, ce texte offre à l’ é crivaine un espace pour faire le point sur l’ é volution de la condition fé minine dans la socié té franç aise au cours de la deuxiè me moitié du XXᵉ siè cle. L’ analyse suivante permet de mettre en lumiè re comment, par le biais de cette oeuvre litté raire engagé e, Ernaux reproduit le vé cu commun des femmes dans les anné es 1960 et 1970 pour dire la difficulté que celles-ci ont de se dé faire des phé nomè nes de pouvoir et de domination qui subsistent au sein du couple et de la socié té patriarcale. Les sté ré otypes de genre, reproduits par les personnages de ce roman, permettent à l’ é crivaine de dé crypter de quelles faç ons les clivages dé finis socialement entre les hommes et les femmes dé bouchent sur des iné galité s. English abstract: In her third autobiographical-inspired novel published in 1981, La Femme gelé e, the French writer Annie Ernaux gives a voice to a wife imprisoned in her unsatisfying life and dispossessed of her aspirations. Coming from a modest background, this female character who, thanks to her marriage, gains access to the middle class, becomes aware, over the years, of the cleavages between the genders which favor man in terms of power and freedom. By describing, in detail, the boring and routine daily life of the young wife and mother marked by the unequal sharing of domestic work, the writer highlights the limits of female emancipation during the second half of the twentieth century and tackles the question of gender stereotypes and parental models conveyed within the family and in society. Our analysis of Ernaux's text, in the light of gender studies, will allow us to identify the causes and consequences of the protagonist's submission to the female model imposed by the patriarchal system. We will demonstrate that, through this story of universal significance, the author denounces the social norms and mentalities which impose, on a daily basis, unequal relationships between men and women within the couple and in society. In this text, the narration, following the chronological transition from childhood to adulthood, allows us to see the reversal of the destiny of a young girl eager for freedom who finds herself imprisoned in her life as a wife and mother. If the narrator grew up in a modest environment, surrounded by parents who divide up household chores and work, it is during her process of socialization outside the home that she will become aware of gender stereotypes conveyed by collective thought. Indeed, we learn that it is at school and with the families of her friends that she will become aware of the divisions that exist between men and women and that she has been brought up in an “ abnormal manner” , without respect for differences by parents who form an “ atypical couple” . Realizing that she does not receive the same education at home as her friends, the protagonist fears being rejected by society because she “ lacks something” . She tries to make up for it by following the example of her friend Brigitte who is proud to be able to follow, from an early age, in the footsteps of her mother who takes care of her house perfectly well. As a teenager, encouraged by her friends, the narrator wishes to become “ beautiful” , “ sweet” and “ feminine” to please boys, and applies herself to following the advice she reads in magazines. Although pursuing higher education destines her to become independent, the student is obsessed with marriage, which seems to her, like most of the young women around her, “ obligatory and sacred” . She gets married very quickly to another student from the middle class, thinking that this one will support her in her career. Once settled into her relationship, the narrator cannot count on the help of her companion to organize their life together. On a daily basis, she has to “ learn the role” of a married woman. The appropriation of this new identity does not come without sacrifices. The young woman recounts her difficult daily life as a wife and young mother where she is the only one to take care of her child and do housework. By dissecting the reality of married life in the 1960s and 1970s, Ernaux offers readers a socio-historical testimony on the difficulties of women's struggle for gender equality. La Femme gelé e is an intimate story written in the first person singular by a narrator who confides, in a familiar register and without reservations, on the difficulties of detaching herself from the surrounding social discourse which requires individuals to follow models of behavior. The story told by the main character helps to account for the weight of stereotypes and the submission of women to the female model imposed by the patriarchal system that Ernaux presents throughout his text to denounce and reject them. We find in this novel a violent indictment against the unequal sharing of household chores and “ domestic enslavement” of the woman who has become “ the keeper of the home” in charge of “ the subsistence of human beings and the upkeep of things” . The main character's speech echoes the reasoning of Simone de Beauvoir who criticizes dominant representations of women and motherhood in a patriarchal society. Not wishing to give up her professional plans, the narrator redoubles her efforts to continue her higher education and become a teacher while taking care of her family. The fact that she is not supported by her husband drives a wedge between her and her partner, and it is a still young but disillusioned woman that we find at the end of the novel. If she denounces in a long monologue the inequalities between herself and her husband, however, she does not have the means to revolt. Over the years, she finds herself alienated by the words and injunctions repeated to her by her teachers, her friends, the mothers of her friends, her husband and her in-laws. To refer to the cleavage between men and women, the narrator uses the third person singular and the substantives “ mom” and “ dad” which reduce the characters to their roles. This choice allows her to generalize her experience, since her daily life, which she describes in detail, is that experienced by the majority of women during the second half of the twentieth century. She notes, bitterly, that there is a dichotomy between the roles assigned to each of the parents, the father being the one who commands and who works outside the home, and the mother being the one who takes care of her child and who does domestic work alone. The end of the novel presents a thirty-year-old wife tired of opposing this traditional difference in roles between husband and wife without being able to live with “ a joyous acceptance of roles” . The desires of the young teacher are extinguished and every day she feels more and more isolated from the world “ by the famous halo of the married woman” . She is this transparent being who looks like all those sad women who horrify her at the hairdressing salon, she is “ a frozen woman” . Annie Ernaux has often expressed the wish to change mentalities by writing to speak freely about the condition of women in texts such as Les Armoires vides (1974), L’ É vé nement (2000) or more recently Mé moire de fille (2016). Her third novel, La Femme gelé e, is an autobiographical tale that has enabled the writer to offer readers a precious testimony on the condition of women in France during the second half of the twentieth century which, despite major advances in the field of women's rights did not lead to equality between women and men. Published in 1981, this text is proof that many cleavages between the sexes remained in French society during the 1960s and 1970s, women finding themselves forced to imitate stereotypical behaviors as the narrator of La Femme gelé e does. By criticizing the dominant representations of women and motherhood, the author offers readers an engaged discourse that consists of saying in order to react. This novel, which makes it possible to denounce the phenomena of power and domination, announces the following books of Ernaux.

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APA: Copy

AWIT, Carole. (2022). French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e). RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES, 15(28 ), 38-49. SID. https://sid.ir/paper/964241/en

Vancouver: Copy

AWIT Carole. French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e). RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES[Internet]. 2022;15(28 ):38-49. Available from: https://sid.ir/paper/964241/en

IEEE: Copy

Carole AWIT, “French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e),” RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES, vol. 15, no. 28 , pp. 38–49, 2022, [Online]. Available: https://sid.ir/paper/964241/en

No record.

Scientific Information Database

ISSN: 2588-4824

Journal Paper

French title: Quotidien et Rapports Sociaux de Genre dans La Femme Gelé e d’ Annie Ernaux (English title: Daily and Gender Social Relations in Annie Ernaux's La Femme Gelé e)