Marguerite Yourcenar’s Le Labyrinthe du Monde: autobiography of an absent self?

Marguerite Yourcenar’s autobiography Le Labyrinthe du monde surprised readers by its lack of self-representation and by being mainly a lengthy exploration of the genealogy of her ancestors. This article pursues the hypothesis that although Yourcenar is considered an autonomous creator, uninfluenced...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Literator Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 21 - 36
Main Author: E. Snyman
Format: Journal Article
Language:Afrikaans
English
Published: AOSIS 26.04.2000
Subjects:
Autobiography
Foucault
Historiography
Self-Representation
Yourcenar
ISSN:0258-2279, 2219-8237
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Marguerite Yourcenar’s autobiography Le Labyrinthe du monde surprised readers by its lack of self-representation and by being mainly a lengthy exploration of the genealogy of her ancestors. This article pursues the hypothesis that although Yourcenar is considered an autonomous creator, uninfluenced by the Parisian avant-garde of the sixties and seventies, certain aspects of her practice of self-representation draw on a new approach to historiography of which Michel Foucault, for example, was one of the earliest practitioners.
ISSN:0258-2279
2219-8237
DOI:10.4102/lit.v21i1.438