Les Années (The Years) of Annie Ernaux has been highly appreciated in the French literaryeld since its rst publication in 2008. Although this work has not been classied as aclassic novel by critics, it can be qualied as a “roman total” (total/integral novel). Ernauxwrote this novel when she was ghting against cancer. With this novel, she nallymanaged to catch the narration style she was longing for in the last three decades.Departing from her own life, this novel presents the records of the post-war French societyand culture. Ernaux seems very much concerned with transferring whatever she knowsand she witnessed to those who will remain in this world. Even in those writings whereshe deals with personal matters, there are always issues related to social life as well ascultural, political and historical events on the background. Ernaux has designed this novelas a “social memory” because she is aware that the way we interpret and remember socialevents is crucial in the formation of individual identities. From the second half of thetwentieth century, there has been an increase in the number of scholars who claimed thathuman psychology is closely linked with social memory, and the reections of this thinkingcan be found in the writings. While social memory tries to keep some practices alive, it is anundebatable truth that this has been interrupted by modern life. In this context, from the1940's to 2008, Ernaux has successfully recorded the lives of different segments of theFrench society and, by working like an ethnologist, she managed to carry her literaturefrom the dimension of individual experiences to another one, that is, social memory. Withinthe framework of the notion of memory writing, this article seeks to examine this “museumnovel”, where Ernaux tries to cope with the detraction efforts of modern life by scrutinizingall the cultural and social images facing extinction.