Annie Ernaux: “Women who died following illegal abortions deserve a monument”

Ernaux feels abandoned. But she was also determined, and by writing about that time, she wanted to demonstrate how much strength it took to face this problem.

“It really was a battle to the death,” she recalls.

In clear and factual language, Ernaux describes the events precisely in his book, The event (Ed. Fósforo, 2022).

“It’s the details that count,” according to her. “It was the sewing needle that I brought from my parents’ house. And also, when I finally miscarried, I didn’t know there would be a placenta coming out.

Ernaux was rushed to the hospital, bleeding, from her university dorm.

“It was the worst violence that could be inflicted on a woman,” she describes. “How could we allow women to experience this?”

“I had no shame in describing everything. I was motivated by the feeling of doing something historically significant.”

“I realized that the same silence that reigned over illegal abortion had been transferred to legal abortion,” Ernaux continues. “So I said to myself, ‘All this will be forgotten.’

Originally published in 2000, The eventis now part of the school curriculum in France and was adapted for cinema in 2021. The film received several awards.

For Ernaux, it is important that young people know the risks of illegal abortion, because politicians sometimes seek to restrict access to legal abortion. It indicates recent events in Poland and some American states.

“Having control over your body and, therefore, over your reproduction is a fundamental freedom,” she says.

France was the first country in the world to enshrine the right to safe abortion in its Constitution. But Ernaux calls for recognition of the countless women who have died as a result of illegal abortions.

No one knows exactly how many there were, because the cause of death was often hidden. But an estimated 300,000 to 1 million women had illegal abortions in France each year until legalization in 1975.

“I think they deserve to have a monument, like that of the unknown soldier,” proclaims the writer.

Ernaux was part of a delegation which proposed this monument to the mayor of Paris at the beginning of the year. But the acceptance of this proposal will depend on the results of the municipal elections in March next year.

This subject still manages to shake people.

Audiences are regularly evacuated from the theater when watching the stage adaptation of Ernaux’s book, which also features an abortion scene.

She says she has witnessed some funny reactions. A university professor told her: “I was born in 1964, that could have been me!”

“It shows this extraordinary fear of women’s power,” believes the writer.

In his work, Ernaux courageously questions his own life.

His books tackle shocking subjects experienced by many people, but on which few dare to comment. Like sexual harassment, dark family secrets, and losing your mother to Alzheimer’s.

“These things happened to me so I could remember them,” she says at the end of the book. The event.

But it does not impose modern values ​​retroactively. Your goal is to accurately reproduce what happened and how she felt at that moment.

In Girl’s memory (Ed. Fósforo, 2022), she talks about her first sexual experience. Ernaux worked at a summer camp and suffered abuse from an older manager.

At the time, she didn’t understand what was happening. She felt “a bit like a mouse facing a snake, not knowing what to do.”

Today, she acknowledges that this would be considered rape, but says her book does not include that word.

“Because the important thing for me is to describe exactly what happened, without judgment,” explains Ernaux.

Ernaux recorded these events in her personal diary, which she has kept since the age of 16. After her marriage, these treasures were kept in a box in her mother’s apartment, along with letters from her friends.

But in 1970, Ernaux’s mother came to live with her and her family and brought back everything from the apartment except this box and what was in it.

“I understood that she had read it and thought that everything should be destroyed,” says Ernaux. “She must have been completely disgusted.”

It was an incalculable loss. Ernaux didn’t want to destroy his relationship with his mother over a senseless argument. But the mother’s attempt to erase the past failed.

“The truth has survived the fire,” writes Ernaux in Girl’s memory.

Unable to consult her diaries, she relied on her memory, which proved sufficient, according to her.

“I can explore my past as I wish,” says the writer. “It’s like showing a movie.”

This is also how Ernaux wrote the inspiring The years (Ed. Fósforo, 2021), a collective history of the post-war generation.

“I just have to wonder what it was like after the war. And I can see and hear everything.”

These memories are not only his, but also those of the people around him.

Ernaux grew up in his parents’ café in Normandy. She was surrounded by customers from morning to evening.

That’s why she was told about adult problems from an early age, which, by the way, was a source of embarrassment.

“I didn’t know if my classmates knew the world as much as I did,” she says.

“I hated hearing about drunk men, who drank too much. That’s why I was ashamed of many things.”

Ernaux writes in a simple, unadorned style.

She once said that she developed this style when she began writing about her father, a hardworking man for whom ordinary language seemed appropriate.

At 22, she wrote in her diary: “I will write to avenge people.”

This phrase still serves as a beacon today. Its goal is to reshape the injustice linked to social class from birth,” she said upon receiving the Nobel Prize.

Ernaux changed his rural, working-class life into a bourgeois life in the suburbs. She defines herself as an internal migrant.

The writer has lived for 50 years in Cergy, one of the five “new towns” built around Paris, where she settled with her husband at the time and their children.

In 1975, the city was still under construction and observing growth around it.

“We are all equal in this space, all migrants, from France and elsewhere,” says the writer. “I don’t think I would have the same view of French society if I lived in the center of Paris.”

Ernaux bought the house where he lives with the money from his first literary prize.

His passion for literature remains unwavering. And her connection with the public is important for this modern 85-year-old woman.

In 1989, at the end of a passionate romance with a married Soviet diplomat, writing was a way for her to recover.

And, after the publication of this book (Simple passionsEd. Fósforo, 2023), she received new reasons for consolation, this time from her readers.

“All of a sudden, I began to receive many testimonials from women and men recounting their own romantic adventures,” recalls Annie Ernaux. “I felt like I had allowed people to reveal their secrets.”

Experiencing a heartbreaking love story creates a certain shame, she emphasizes, “but at the same time, I must say that it is the most beautiful memory of my entire life.”

This report was produced as a co-production between the Nobel Prize Outreach institution and the BBC.