Ernaux's Representation Of Desire

Ernaux, in her representation of desire, delves into the mother as a figure of desire. However, she does not describe the traditional relationship that exists between mother and child regarding a mother’s sexual desire or exploits. Her two sons are aware of her affair, “ils devraient téléphoner pour savoir s’ils pouvaient rentrer à la maison et, s’ils s’y trouvaient, repartir dès que A. annonçait sa venue.” In a traditional literary sense, the sexual desire of a mother is hidden from the other characters, to a point where it can be assumed that it has never existed in the first place. Mothers cannot be creatures of desire, and sex is used only to further motherhood. In ‘Le Corps-à-Corps avec la Mère’, Irigaray looks at the representation of the mother as it is presented from a male point of view, “Le désir d’elle, son désir à elle, voilà ce que doit venir interdire la loi du père, de tous pères...ils interviennent pour censurer, refouler, le désir de la mère”. …show more content…
Yet, the author does not adhere to the rules intended to be imposed upon women, particularly mothers, when it comes to their own desire. Instead, she instructs the men in her life, her sons, that they are to remove themselves from their home should their mother’s lover intend to call over. Ernaux is dismantling the long-established myth that mothers no longer feel sexual desire, and creating an important representation of how women and mothers can be and can live, separate from the conventional expectations required of them. The mother playing the role of caretaker without any sexual desire has been cast out, and replaced with the mother who is a woman, and who experiences desire independent of any social

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