Years

"The Years” by Annie Ernaux is an autofiction novel in which individual and collective experiences are merged into a shared, reconstructed memory through refined style and masterful literary technique. On the porous border between poetic expression and documentary realism, Ernaux, writing in the third person, leads readers through the dense fabric of her autofictional text, weaving powerful and vivid images of France’s past—from the 1940s to the early 21st century.

This multilayered novel captures various aspects of everyday life, with a focus on the female experience shaped by social and political forces. Maturation, friendships, family and romantic relationships, the exploration and expression of sexuality, political and historical upheavals, pop culture, the influence of Catholic upbringing, women’s rights, and consumerism are some of the themes that Annie Ernaux masterfully depicts in associative sequences of intimate fragments that become a universal experience.

In the adaptation of Ernaux’s novel "Years", as well as four other - "Happening",  "A womans story", "Simple passion" and "A girls story", focus is on the story of a woman who contemplates her place in the world, perceiving her own past both within a socio-political context and through her most intimate relationships. The treatment of the body is a key point in the narrative and language of the play. The body and corporeality serve as a prism through which one can observe an entire life, as well as the personal and political history of women.