Last Thursday, the Nobel Prize for Literature crowned the career of French novelist Anne Ernault, and the “courage” of her autobiographical works that made her a prominent feminist face in the French and international literary scene.
The Nobel Committee cited the 82-year-old Erno’s “courage and insightful ability to explore” in “discovering the roots, distance and collective backgrounds of personal memory”.
Ernault became the 17th woman to receive this prestigious literary award, out of a total of 119 winners in the literature category since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. She also became the 16th French winner in the Nobel history, eight years following Patrick Modiano was awarded it.
Ernault also became the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, following all of her compatriots who had preceded her were men, including Anatole France, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, who declined to receive it.
In a statement made by Erno to Swedish television, she described winning the award as a “great honor” and at the same time a “great responsibility” assigned to her.
Although the fluidity of Erno’s prose style has long been considered by literary circles among the favorites to win the Nobel Prize, the writer herself asserted that her victory came as a great “surprise” for her.
Anders Olsson, a member of the Swedish Academy that awards the prize, noted that the winning novelist’s works are “written in simple, clean language”.
He pointed out that it “sheds light with courage and a penetrating ability to observe (…) the contradictions of social experience, and to address the concepts of shame, humiliation, jealousy and the inability of a person to see who he really is,” stressing that all of this is “worthy of admiration.”
Noting that Erno has a “joyful literary style”, the Swedish Academy also mentioned that the writer considers herself an autobiographical blogger rather than a “fiction writer”. Erno’s easy, realistic style, free from any structural exaggerations, has aroused much interest and analysis.
In her works, Erno narrates aspects of her own story, and her personal experience, to write in a general human way.
Erno defines herself as “just a woman who writes”. Through her works primarily inspired by her life, she has created an accurate portrait of the feelings of women that have developed with the turmoil of French society since the post-World War II period.
Ernault, professor of literature at the University of Cergy Pontoise, published regarding 20 stories in which she dealt with the impact of class domination and passion, which are of course themes of her life path as a woman who suffered the consequences of belonging to her popular origins.
Among the most prominent works of Annie Erno are “The Empty Cabinets” in 1974, “The Place” (1982), “The Years” (2008) and finally “Life Memories” (2018). Her last book, The Young Man, was published in early May by Gallimar, which has been publishing her books.
