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Ernaux's Ce Qu'ils Disent Ou Rien: Anne Makes A Spectacle(S) Of Herself, Elizabeth Richardson Viti

French Faculty Publications

Ce qu'ils disent ou rien is arguably Annie Ernaux's most comical text, untainted by such serious themes like abortion, as is the case for Les armoires vides. Narrated from the perspective of the fifteen-you-old Anne - although she would describe herself as having "bientot seize ans" (19) - the language of this "monologue interieur accusateur" (Tondeur 176) is adolescent argot that ranges from the colloquial to the outright vulgar. Furthermore, it captures a period in a teenaged girl's life that many females recognize and rememver with their own wry smile: the discovery of and sexual experimentation with the opposite …