Atelier 62 : Un récit littéraire du travail en friction avec les sciences sociales

Abstract

Atelier 62 emphasizes my father’s working life. He started as rural blacksmith and cartwrigth in the 1930’s but his conditon was disrupted by the great drift from the land after Second World War. Then he joined the ranks of the urban working class. The title « Atelier 62 » refers to the forges in the car factory Renault in Billancourt where he worked from 1951 to 1967. The car production ended in 1992 and the buildings of the factory were knock down in 2004-2006. This end threw me in rebuilding with words my father’s department to keep alive these men who hardly worked there. The book mixes autobiographical and biographical materials with elements from social studies, firm archivs or extracts from unions papers simply inserted by « copy and past ». The reading of the book by many gave way to letters by readers whose families experienced the same upheavel, revealing me that juxtaposition of the two points of view – personal and collective – turned to be an efficient way to write human impact of this paroxysmic moment of industrial work in XXth century.