Chapter 16 - Forgotten Class

Summary

Looking at French writer Édouard Louis’s oeuvre – including En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule (The End of Eddy) (2014), Qui a tué mon père (Who Killed My Father) (2018), Changer: Méthode (Change: Method) (2021), Combat et Métamorphoses d’une femme (Battles and Metamorphoses of a Woman) (2021), and Dialogue sur l’art et la politique (Dialogue on Art and Politics) (2021) – this chapter analyses the relationship between (white) working-class/poor individuals and medicine, masculinity and care. This study sheds light on Louis’s strategy to deploy a ’democracy of care’ – that is, a type of social organization grounded in equality, more horizontal relations, and which values care (and care workers) over economic production – by using his artistic practice to draw attention to lived experiences of trauma, pain, silence, and social invisibilization. Further, it does not only appear that Louis’s writing about pain serves to reflect on France’s healthcare policies and inequalities, but also that power dynamics (such as patient-doctor) inform his writing practice.