Talk:Happening (book)

Testing for HIV/AIDS in 1963?

The article claims that Anne Ernaux was tested for HIV/AIDS in 1963. While HIV/AIDS was around in the very early 1960s, there was no test for it then, and it was not known as HIV/AIDS, but a mysterious slimming or wasting disease from Africa, and later theorized to be a "cancer".100.34.234.175 (talk) 20:18, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

I just read the English text which repeatedly uses "AIDS" but I checked the original French and Ernaux does talk about being given le sida, which is AIDS. However, before that she says the term used in the doctor's office is séropositivité, which is the result of a serological examination. But in general language, séropositive does mean HIV-positive. I will try to change the article. Οἶδα (talk) 20:55, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Novel/Fiction vs. Memoir/Nonfiction

This article describes the book as an "autobiographical novel" and "fiction." However, the edition I have (in English translation from Seven Stories Press) lists it on the back as "Memoir/World Literature." All the sources I can find online, including Amazon, Goodreads, and Penguin Random House all describe it as memoir and nonfiction. In other words, the article seems to be incorrect and miscategorized. Jcb9 (talk) 01:20, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

@Jcb9: I have a read handful of Ernaux's books, but would not proclaim to be an expert of her work. When I created this article, I was inspired by the corresponding French Wikipedia article, which described it as an autobiographical novel. However, I decided to research into the matter:

There is a longstanding literary tradition of bending the fiction narrative with autobiography (autofiction, roman à clef, creative nonfiction etc.) As PW opined, "authors can get a little obsessive about labels". But I think you will find Ernaux is frequently described as a pioneer of autofiction, a term whose definition is certainly contentious and which Ernaux rejects in favor of "autosociobiographiques". Interestingly, Ernaux spoke at length to Le Monde[1] in 2011 about the meaning of autofiction.

Her first three books were subtitled "Roman" (Novel), and are described by most sources as semi-autobiographical novels. Her fourth work, La Place, was published in 1983 with no such subtitle. As Ernaux elucidated in the aforementioned Le Monde source:

"Comment l'atteindre ? Ça a été la question cruciale en écrivant La Place (Gallimard, 1984). Si le mot avait été davantage répandu, on m'aurait situé dans l'autofiction. Pour parler de mon père, de sa trajectoire sociale, ça ne marchait pas, la seule écriture juste m'a paru être le refus de toute fiction et ce que j'ai appelé ensuite "l'autosociobiographie" parce que je me fonde presque toujours sur un rapport de soi à la réalité sociohistorique."

So, it appears she completely renounced the novelistic form in 1983 with La Place, opting for a bare-bones style. Although, she had largely (with some exceptions) renounced the novel by the publication of La Femme gelée (1981). In a 1995 interview with Claire-Lise Tondeur published in The French Review[2], she explained:

Mais ils le sont tous, a des degres differents, d'une maniere differente. Il faut examiner le projet. Dans les Armoires vides je prends appui sur mon enfance, sur mon experience, sur tout ce que j'ai vecu mais je me suis octroye la liberte du roman c'est-a-dire j'ai condense des episodes. Mais les choses les plus importantes, les scenes cles sont respectees. Le detail est toujours extremement important et vrai. Par exemple a la rentree des classes la scene oiu pere et fille se trompent de porte, c'est vrai mais par contre pour les aventures sentimentales il y a condensation dans un garqon. Par la forme romanesque je n'etais que la narratrice (dans la trentaine), le personnage par contre a vingt ans dans les Armoires vides et quinze ans dans Ce qu'ils disent ou rien. Avec la femme gelée, je prends mes distances avec le roman. Ii n'y a pas vraiment de difference entre la narratrice et le personnage. Ce n'est pas une construction qui se presente comme romanesque au debut. L'heroine, c'est-a-dire le je narrateur n'a pas de prenom, pas de nom. Le statut de La Femme gelee a ete presque de s'avouer comme une autobiographie. Il y a encore le mot roman, mais en fait dans les interviews que j'ai pu avoir au sujet de ce livre, j'ai ete presque obligee par les gens qui me parlaient de reconnaitre que ce n'etait plus un roman mais une autobiographie. Mais j'ai change certaines choses, par exemple la profession de mon beau-pere. A partir de La Place je refuse tout a fait la forme romanesque. Mes textes sont une recherche sur la realite: je veux dire que je suis partie non du desir d'ecrire un livre "a partir de" la vie de mon pere, mais de mettre au jour ce qu'avait ete la vie de mon pere au travers des faits verifiables et des paroles reelles, des comportements culturels, economiques. J'ai fait de meme pour mettre au jour la vie de ma mere dans Une Femme et ma propre passion pour un homme dans Passion simple. Journal du dehors est aussi un essai de saisie de la realite de mon temps.

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. Sorry in advance if you cannot speak French. With the above considerations, would you agree that the book is more accurately described as a memoir? Οἶδα (talk) 05:20, 3 August 2023 (UTC)