A-Infos (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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