A Girl's Story

In what ways does Ernaux, as she’s writing the book, feel separated from the younger version of herself, the Girl of ’58? In what ways is she the same?

What reasons might Ernaux have for writing about “the girl of ’58” as an entity separate from herself? Why choose to tell an autobiographical story in the third person?

In all of Ernaux’s work, she weaves the larger forces of the moment into her own story. How do the larger cultural and societal events (for example, French troops attempting to establish “order” in Algeria) relate to Ernaux making sense of her own adolescence?

Could this be considered “autofiction?” Annie Ernaux has said that she does not believe the term autofiction should be applied to her work, because, as she writes on her website, she “reject[s] belonging to a specific genre, be it novel or even autobiography.” What do you think of this rejection of genre, and specifically the rejection of autofiction as it relates to this book?