Simone de Beauvoir throughout Les années : How Annie Ernaux Reinvented Her Predecessor's Fight against Ageism

ABSTRACT: This article argues that the rich political and philosophical dimensions of Les années (2008) grow out of Annie Ernaux's sustained dialogue with Simone de Beauvoir's writings on aging and ageism. Through interdisciplinary and intertextual analysis, it traces Ernaux's engagement with Beauvoir's work across three phases: her early encounter with Le deuxième sexe (1949), her reinterpretation of Beauvoir's theory of engaged literature, and her reimagination of the revolutionary pessimistic method found in La vieillesse (1970). Ultimately, Ernaux draws on Beauvoir's anti-ageist praxis to develop a stylistically unique "age autobiography" that teaches readers to confront internalized ageism and critique neoliberal progress narratives.