First modification: 11/10/2022 – 07:16
New York (AFP) – Studied and translated for 30 years in the United States, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Annie Ernaux, was awarded on Monday in New York, at the French cultural center.
The French writer, a leading figure in feminism and a committed leftist, awarded Thursday by the Nobel committee for “courage and clinical acuity” for her largely autobiographical work, spoke for an hour of literary creation at a conference with the American writer Kate Zambreno.
At least 300 people, most of whom were women, applauded her at Villa Albertine in New York.
“I have been absolutely nurtured by literature since childhood. As far as you can look, I know that reading, books, are part of my life. I dreamed of my life before books,” said Ernaux, 82, whose words in French were translated into English by an interpreter, in front of a Francophone and Anglophone audience.
The writer has been studied for years in American intellectual and university circles.
Her work is considered an x-ray of a woman’s intimacy that has evolved with the changes in French society since the war. In twenty works you analyze the weight of the domination of social classes and the amorous passion, two themes that have marked her journey as a broken woman due to her popular origins.
One of the women present at the ceremony thanked her for letting her “enter feminism”, particularly by reading her autobiographical novel on abortion entitled “The Event” (2000).
Ernaux also presented, along with his son David Ernaux-Briot, their family documentary “Les années Super-8” (“The Super-8 Years”) at the New York Film Festival.
© 2022 AFP
