French writer Annie Ernaux awarded Nobel Prize in literature

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Thu Oct 6, 2022, 03:05 PM - Edit history (4)

Source: AP

PARIS (AP) — French author Annie Ernaux won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for blending fiction and autobiography in books that fearlessly mine her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s.

In more than 20 books published over five decades, Ernaux has probed deeply personal experiences and feelings – love, sex, abortion, shame – within a society split by gender and class divisions.

After a half-century of defending feminist ideals, Ernaux said “it doesn’t seem to me that women have become equal in freedom, in power,” and she strongly defended women’s rights to abortion and contraception. “I will fight to my last breath so that women can choose to be a mother, or not to be. It’s a fundamental right,” she said at a news conference in Paris. Ernaux’s first book, “Cleaned Out,” was about her own illegal abortion before it was legalized in France.

The prize-giving Swedish Academy said Ernaux, 82, was recognized for “the courage and clinical acuity” of books rooted in her small-town background in the Normandy region of northwest France. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Ernaux is “not afraid to confront the hard truths.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/annie-ernaux-nobel-prize-literature-1f3dd6d357a92e56e845e66afe07b227

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The 2022 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the French author Annie Ernaux "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory."
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7:00 AM · Oct 6, 2022

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PARIS (AP) -- French author Annie Ernaux, who has fearlessly mined her experiences as a working-class woman to explore life in France since the 1940s, won this year's Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for work that illuminates the murky corners of memory, family and society.

Ernaux 's books probe deeply personal experiences and feelings - love, sex, abortion, shame - within a society split by gender and class divisions. The author strongly defended women's rights to abortion and contraception in some of her first comments after winning the prize. "I will fight to my last breath so that women can choose to be a mother, or not to be. It's a fundamental right," she said at a news conference in Paris.

Ernaux's first book, "Cleaned Out," was about her own illegal abortion before it was legalized in France. Ernaux also spoke about the importance of continuing to fight for women's rights, and her hope for peace because of her childhood during World War II.

The Swedish Academy said Ernaux, 82, was recognized for "the courage and clinical acuity" of books rooted in her small-town background in the Normandy region of northwest France. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Ernaux is "an extremely honest writer who is not afraid to confront the hard truths."

Last update -

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- French author Annie Ernaux, who has fearlessly mined her own biography to explore life in France since the 1940s, won this year's Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for work that illuminates murky corners of memory, family and society. Ernaux 's books probe deeply personal experiences and feelings - love, sex, abortion, shame - within a society split by gender and class divisions.

The Swedish Academy said Ernaux, 82, was recognized for "the courage and clinical acuity" of books rooted in her background in a working-class family in the Normandy region of northwest France. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Ernaux is "an extremely honest writer who is not afraid to confront the hard truths."

"She writes about things that no one else writes about, for instance her abortion, her jealousy, her experiences as an abandoned lover and so forth. I mean, really hard experiences," he told The Associated Press after the award announcement in Stockholm. "And she gives words for these experiences that are very simple and striking. They are short books, but they are really moving."

One of France's most-garlanded authors and a prominent feminist voice, Ernaux said she was happy to have won the prize, which carries a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) -- but "not bowled over."

Previous update -

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- French author Annie Ernaux, who mined her own biography to explore life in France since the 1940s, was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for work that illuminates murky corners of memory, family and society.

The Swedish Academy said Ernaux, 82, was recognized for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory." She is the first French literature laureate since Patrick Modiano in 2014. Ernaux told Swedish broadcaster SVT by telephone that the award was "a great honor" and "a very great responsibility."

Ernaux started out writing autobiographical novels, but quickly abandoned fiction in favor of memoirs. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Ernaux had used the term "an ethnologist of herself" rather than a writer of fiction. Her more than 20 books, most of them very short, chronicle events in her life and the lives of those around her.

They present uncompromising portraits of sexual encounters, abortion, illness and the deaths of her parents. Olsson said Ernaux's work was often "uncompromising and written in plain language, scraped clean." "She has achieved something admirable and enduring," he told reporters after the announcement in Stockholm, Sweden.

Last update -

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- French author Annie Ernaux, who mined her own biography to explore life in France since the 1940s, was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for work that illuminates murky corners of memory, family and society. The Swedish Academy said Ernaux, 82, was recognized for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory."

She is the first French literature laureate since Patrick Modiano in 2014. Ernaux started out writing autobiographical novels, but quickly abandoned fiction in favor of memoirs. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel literature committee, said Ernaux had used the term "an ethnologist of herself" rather than a writer of fiction.

Her more than 20 books, most of them very short, chronicle events in her life and the lives of those around her. They present uncompromising portraits of sexual encounters, abortion, illness and the deaths of her parents. Olsson said Ernaux's work was often "uncompromising and written in plain language, scraped clean."

"She has achieved something admirable and enduring," he told reporters after the announcement in Stockholm, Sweden. Ernaux describes her style as "flat writing" -- aiming for an very objective view of the events she is describing, unshaped by florid description or overwhelming emotions.

Original article -

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- This year's Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to French author Annie Ernaux.

Ernaux, 82, was cited for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory," the Nobel committee said.

Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, announced the winner Thursday in Stockholm, Sweden.

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Ernaux

Annie Ernaux started her literary career in 1974 with Les Armoires vides (Cleaned Out), an autobiographical novel. In 1984, she won the Renaudot Prize for another of her autobiographical works La Place (A Man's Place), an autobiographical narrative focusing on her relationship with her father and her experiences growing up in a small town in France, and her subsequent process of moving into adulthood and away from her parents' place of origin.[10][11]

Very early in her career, she turned away from fiction to focus on autobiography.[12] Her work combines historic and individual experiences. She charts her parents' social progression (La place, La honte), her teenage years (Ce qu'ils disent ou rien), her marriage (La femme gelée), her passionate affair with an eastern European man (Passion simple), her abortion (L'événement), Alzheimer's disease (Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit), the death of her mother (Une femme), and breast cancer (L'usage de la photo).[13] Ernaux also wrote L'écriture comme un couteau (Writing as Sharp as a Knife) with Frédéric-Yves Jeannet.[13]

A Woman's Story, A Man's Place, and Simple Passion were recognized as The New York Times Notable Books, and A Woman's Story was a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Shame was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998, I Remain in Darkness a Top Memoir of 1999 by The Washington Post, and The Possession was listed as a Top Ten Book of 2008 by More Magazine.[citation needed]

Her 2008 historical memoir Les Années (The Years), very well received by French critics, is considered by many to be her magnum opus.[14] In this book, Ernaux writes about herself in the third person (elle, or "she" in English) for the first time, providing a vivid look at French society just after the Second World War until the early 2000s.[15] It is the story of a woman and of the evolving society she lived in. The Years won the 2008 Françoise-Mauriac Prize of the Académie française, the 2008 Marguerite Duras Prize,[16] the 2008 French Language Prize, the 2009 Télégramme Readers Prize, and the 2016 Premio Strega Europeo Prize. Translated by Alison L. Strayer, The Years was a Finalist for the 31st Annual French-American Foundation Translation Prize. In 2018 she won the Premio Hemingway.[citation needed]

She was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2019 for her book The Years.[17]

Many of her works have been translated into English and published by Seven Stories Press. Ernaux is one of the seven founding authors from whom the Press takes its name.

[ancianita]

2. Woman number 61 of the 603 times the Nobel Prizes have been awarded. But who's counting.

Trying to order one title of hers, but a number of her books are "not available" on Amazon. Most are at Seven Stories Press.