WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #365 - Culture - Read: Rose-Marie Lagrave, "Taking Charge: An Autobiographical Investigation of a Feminist Class-Defector" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The author, a sociologist and feminist, has decided to use the

scientific tools of sociology to retrace her personal journey, her
commitments, and her social ascent. The main sources are interviews
within her family, archival research, and the use of a substantial
theoretical-including Bourdieu-and literary corpus. What led a girl from
a large family (eleven children, nine of them girls) who experienced
downward mobility following her father's illness to become a feminist
and a professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social
Sciences (EHESS)?

While small openings-allies, access to scholarships-do not entirely
confirm the rules of social reproduction, R.-M. Lagrave doesn't,
however, contribute to the tide of narratives extolling meritocracy;
quite the opposite!

The book is structured around the author's social stages: childhood and
family socialization, schooling, student life, first jobs, university
studies, and aging.

A persistent feeling of illegitimacy seems to mark each new stage of her
academic and then professional life.

The author describes at length the social, religious, and familial
context in which she grew up: "What catechism and rituals didn't teach,
home discipline took care of ingraining in our bodies."

Long in denial regarding male domination, believing only the social
class framework to be relevant, her introduction to feminism and her
participation in the "married women" group of the Women's Liberation
Movement marked a new turning point in her life. This influence remains
as strong as ever, as in the final section she addresses old age from a
feminist perspective.

While accounts of class defectors abound, women who speak out on the
subject are rare, with the exception of Annie Ernaux. Moreover, the
dialogue between Ernaux and Lagrave, published more recently, is
fascinating (Une conversation, Éditions de l'EHESS, 2023).

Se ressaisir is all the more interesting because, beyond self-analysis,
it also constitutes a reflexive contribution to social history.

Gile (supporter from Brest)

Se ressaisir: enquête autobiographique d'une transfuge de classe
féministe, RoseMarie Lagrave, La Découverte, 2023 (1st edition 2021),
416 pages, EUR14.50.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Rose-Marie-Lagrave-Se-ressaisir-enquete-autobiographique-d-une-transfuge
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