The Paris Métro and urban experience in Annie Ernaux’s Journal du dehors and Céline Curiol’s Voix sans issue

Abstract

According to Marc Augé, contemporary urban life generates non-places, meaningless spaces of transit and anonymity. I discuss the form taken by the idea of the non-place in contemporary representations of the Paris Métro, with a focus on women’s urban experiences in Annie Ernaux’s Journal du dehors and Céline Curiol’s Voix sans issue. I argue that there are no fixed non-places; the experience of place is always subjective. The Métro can be seen momentarily as a non-place when it reflects the character’s state of mind, but it can also be a meaningful place, connected to the character’s identity and history.