Entanglements of Affect and Desire

Entanglements of Affect and Desire: A Palimpsestic Reading of Annie Ernaux's A Girl's Story

Abstract

Autobiographical writing has long been and still is an important archive for feminist and queer theorizing. Autobiographical sources give proof of the complexity of self-perceptions and perceptions by social contexts – always entangled with each other and always embedded in norms, expectations and possibilities for change. Autobiographical accounts are also important for affect studies, as they point to affective intertwinements of the personal and the political. In A Girl’s Story, Annie Ernaux gives special attention to the affect of shame as a driving force for her autobiographical writing. According to her, shame is not “merely” a feeling, but rather her way of existence. In her writing – a lifelong endeavor of approaching the self – she expresses the many and complicated entanglements of shame and desire in her life.