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On Thursday, the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to French author Annie Ernaux for “the boldness & clinical acuity” portrayed in her largely personal works investigating societal inequity and one’s memories.
Annie Ernaux, 82, “continually and even from different viewpoints analyses a life marked by huge differences relating to language, gender, and status,” in accordance with the Swedish Academy’s explanation decision.
Ernaux became the very first Frenchwoman to achieve the literary prize, describing how “immense” it was to receive the honour. She has previously stated that writing is a political gesture that reveals social disparities. According to the academy, “And to accomplish this, she utilises language as ‘a knife,’ removing the barriers of fantasy, even though she describes it.
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Key Takeaways
- For her “bravery & clinical precision in which she unearths the origins, estrangements, and communal restrictions of personal memory,” Annie Ernaux has been given the Nobel Prize in literature.
- First of her country’s best-renowned authors, Ernaux writes non-fiction and novels about everyday life in France. She was considered one of the candidates for the prize.
- The Nobel stated that although they could not communicate with her over the phone, they anticipated doing so shortly.
- After Patrick Modiano in 2014, Ernaux became the first French author to receive the Nobel Prize. She is now the 16th French author to receive the Nobel Prize.
- The Nobel board’s chair, Anders Olsson, stated that Ernestine’s work “continually and from various aspects investigates a life characterised by substantial discrepancies relating to gender, speech, and class.”
- Ernaux was born in 1940 & brought up in the Normandy village of Yvetot. She attended the University of Rouen and later taught at a secondary institution.
- She worked as a professor at the Centre National d’Enseignement par Correspondence from 1977 until 2000. Her “road to writing was lengthy & laborious,” according to Olsson.
Honestly Ruthless
The movie version of Ernaux’s 2000 book “Happening,” which details her experiences getting an abortion in the 1960s while it was still prohibited in France, won a Golden Lion just at Venice Film Festival in 2021.
Ernaux told reporters in Paris, “I could not think at the moment that 22 years later, the abortion rights would’ve been challenged. I will battle for women’s freedom to decide if they wish to have children until I die.
Ernaux also discussed the recent electoral gains made by the right-wing in European nations, noting that “the right wing in history has never been kind to women.”
The council declared that her “clinically restricted tale” about just the abortion of a 23-year-old protagonist was still a masterpiece.
The academy praised the author’s “ruthlessly honest work”. She added remarks in parenthesis using a “vitally lucid” voice and simultaneously addressed herself and the reader.
The reward should draw greater attention to the female autobiography genre, which Jason Whittaker, dean of English & journalism from the University of Lincoln in Britain, said can be “very often disregarded in what is still a male-dominated arena.”
He said that when Polish author Olga Tokarczuk received the award in 2018, Ernaux’s work would gain English readers due to the acclaim.
Whittaker states, “She’s been a preeminent contribution in aspects of memoir-type autobiographical writing.” From the perspective of her contribution to world literature, it’s crucial to put creativity and intriguing tactics in women’s memoirs at the forefront of literary writing.
Girls Rights
The English translation of Ernaux’s most recent novel, “Getting Lost,” was released by Seven Stories Press, her 31-year-old U.S. publisher, just two days before she received the Nobel award. Seven Stories Press said it was now hurrying to publish many of Ernaux’s backlist books.
Ernaux “has stood out on her own as a woman, as somebody who comes first from French underclass, unbowed, for a decade,” 7 Story Press Publisher Dan Simon stated in a statement.
He said that the Swedish Academy had shown courage in choosing Ernaux because she “writes unapologetically regarding her sex life, about women’s rights, as well as her experience & sensibility as a woman.”
Roselyne Bachelot, a former minister of culture in France, said on Twitter that Ernaux is “a writer whose career has been centred on the introspective mode in its icy analytical manner. Regardless of one’s political views, one must respect such an intense and poignant piece of work “.
Previous winners
- Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist and engineer who gained fame and fortune through the invention of dynamite, established the Nobel Prize in 1901 when they were first awarded yearly.10 million Swedish crowns ($915,000) is the value of the award.
- Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian author, earned the prize last year. It is recognized as the highest academic award in the entire globe.
- The French philosopher Henri Bergson, the British PM Winston Churchill, and the American singer Bob Dylan were among the awards in the year1927, 1953, and 2016.
Winning, according to Ernaux, was a blessing and a curse. She told journalists at the offices of her French publisher Gallimard, “I constantly claimed that I did not wish to receive the Nobel prize. “Because once you obtain it, you will always have the badge next to their name, and I worry that this could indicate that after one has their statue created, they can no further evolve.”
