Davis, Oliver (2012) Didier Eribon, restive rationalist : the limits of sociological self-understanding in Retour a Reims. French Cultural Studies, Volume 23 (Number 2). pp. 117-126. doi:10.1177/0957155812436532 ISSN 0957-1558.

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Abstract

This article suggests that Eribon’s autobiography is most engaging (as literature) and valuable (as social document) in those moments when the author loses his interpretative grip on the meaning of his own experience. Although a concerted attempt is made by Eribon to account for his problematic relationship to his working-class family background, in particular his father, in purely sociological terms, a restive textual indeterminacy at key junctures unwittingly exposes the limitations of this approach. By allowing us to glimpse the limits of its author’s sociological rationalism, the autobiography calls into question Eribon’s strategic rejection of psychoanalytic forms of understanding and a number of his other longstanding theoretical and political commitments. This is just as it should be: its restive moments and the critical consequences which follow from them make Eribon’s autobiography much more than a mere exercise in self-validation.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French Studies
Journal or Publication Title:	French Cultural Studies
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	0957-1558
Official Date:	May 2012
Dates:	Date Event May 2012 Published
Volume:	Volume 23
Number:	Number 2
Page Range:	pp. 117-126
DOI:	10.1177/0957155812436532
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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