Literature and sociology, both of which offer alternative perspectives on the human condition and expand the horizons of human thought, are deeply interconnected. Drawing on these two fields in relation to key issues such as identity, class, othering, and education is crucial for fostering awareness at both individual and societal levels. Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential sociological theorists of the twentieth century, reshaped sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and literary criticism through his work. For Bourdieu, literature is not merely an aesthetic object but also a social field shaped by power relations, capital, and habitus. Within this framework, Annie Ernaux’s works exemplify Bourdieu’s conception of writing as a social stance. In The Years (2008), a collective autobiography in which she narrates her own life through the lens of France’s social history, Ernaux reflects the transformations of French society from the 1940s to the 2000s through a sociological inquiry. Ernaux’s aim is to prevent the erasure of individuals and societies, and to preserve the traces of an existence and of the social world. In this study, Ernaux’s The Years will be examined within the framework of Bourdieu’s idea that “the individual is a product of the social context.”
Literature, social class, sociology of literature, Pierre Bourdieu, Annie Ernaux.