Intimate Testimonies of Cognitive Decline: Annie Ernaux's Une femme and J.M.G. Le Clézio's L'Africain

ABSTRACT: This article examines Annie Ernaux's Une femme and J.M.G. Le Clézio's L'Africain , which portray the lives and decline of the authors' parents. It proposes the new term "intimate testimony" and applies it to these pieces. This concept draws on the texts' structure and content: intimate literature genres (autobiographies, biographies, and testimonies) and psycho-philosophical musings from existentialism, phenomenology, and a pharmakon . Both authors combine objective portrayals and subjective reflections, recounting stories and memories of their parents, who experience forms of cognitive decline, while offering self-portraits as witnesses.