自傳體小說是二十世紀法國女性文學的主要文體之一，許多女作家在歷經社會階級或族群差異的衝擊和疏離之後，藉由書寫親身經驗來確立自我認知。瑪麗‧卡迪娜 (Marie Cardinal) 和安妮‧艾諾 (Annie Ernaux) 是值得我們注意的二位作家，因為她們的寫作徑路趨向現實的批判與寫實的風格，不僅體現了文學禁忌，更為女性特質在傳統文學和父權文化中再定義。例如以瘋癲身體化所致的異常經血或非法墮胎行徑為題材，她們探究社會加諸於女性的桎梏並試圖尋求解脫。尤其是赤裸的女性敘述，在女體與文體的纏結錯雜裡，實踐了文本是女性書寫所形塑的另一種「身體」，忠實記錄女性在自我實踐的搏鬥過程中的矛盾與掙扎，引導讀者進入生產社會文化意義的新場域。她們的女性敘述同時呈現微觀內省的書寫，以及以社會、歷史、政治為中心關懷的論述，展現特有的身體政治行為，進而重劃女性文學的版圖和位置。

Autobiographical writing has become the emergent literary form of many contemporary French women writers. Their claim for self-representation and self-assertion is undoubtedly validated in the depictions of their personal experiences going through c1assstruggle or gender differences. Such a c1aimis explicitly characteristic of Marie Cardinal's and Annie Emaux's works because they profoundly challenge the gender and class inequalities of French society. It is their realistic and even "brutal" writing that offers readers a representation of social taboos and a redefinition of femininity in the literary canon and patriarchal culture. Furthermore, discusssion of the female body is a fundamental theme in their works, such as abnormal menstruation as the embodiment of madness or description of a back-ally i1legalabortion. The direct and real delineation of their own lives provides evidence of the relevance to societal restrictions on women and women's search for freedom and identity. On these grounds, their works present a kind of female narration in which the narrative text serves as a body of its own. Through this textual body both writers aim to represent truthfully women' s inner struggles and desires. More importantly, their works captivate readers to try to redefine cultural meanings imposed on women's social roles. The emphasis on reflection and examination of both personal lives and social realities in Cardinal's and Emaux's writing constitutes a political intervention, shaping the body politics by which the two women writers attempt to reposition themselves as female subjects within French literature and culture.