Authorial Creativity in Interdisciplinary Perspective: The Cognitive-Material Generation of Annie Ernaux’s Les Années

Abstract

This article offers an exploration of the creative process of literary authors from a cognitive-psychological perspective. Analyzing Annie Ernaux’s personal diary, her writing diary, and avant-textes and manuscript drafts for Les années (2008), translated as The Years, the article demonstrates how Ernaux innovates the genre of autobiography and the relation between the individual and the collective. The article considers Ernaux’s experimentation with cognitive and material resources in light of and as shedding light on accounts of creativity and writing from psychology and philosophy of mind. In so doing, it contributes to interdisciplinary exploration of creativity and points to new directions for the field of genetic criticism.