Lexical and pragmatic strategies in depicting grief in Ernaux’s "La Place" and "Une Femme"

This study explores the pragmatic and stylistic representations of death and grief in Annie Ernaux’s modern French novels, La Place and Une Femme. Employing a qualitative textual analysis with a pragmatic-stylistic approach, the research examines selected excerpts to identify speech acts, deictic elements, and stylistic features that convey emotional depth and social context. Through close reading and coding based on Austin’s and Searle’s speech act theories, Levinson’s deiksis, and principles of pragmastylistics, the analysis reveals Ernaux’s minimalist “flat” writing style. This style, characterized by direct and unembellished language, juxtaposes death with mundane routines, enhancing emotional resonance and authenticity. The findings demonstrate how Ernaux’s linguistic and stylistic choices effectively depict the complexities of grief, reinforcing the significance of pragmastylistic analysis in understanding autobiographical literature.Keywords: autobiographical literature; Ernaux; grief; pragmastylistic; French novel