Annie Ernaux has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Read about the memoirist who has devoted herself to the excavation of her own life.
A young woman has her first sexual experience. She is pleased to be desired by someone. She does not feel humiliated. But, later, she is mocked, tormented by others who believe that she has debased herself. Those whom she thought of as her friends now treat her like nothing. She feels shame. Is the shame hers? Or is it a reflection of what is expected of her?
Ernaux is an unusual memoirist: she distrusts her memory. She writes in the first person, and then abruptly switches and speaks about herself from a distance, calling past selves “the girl of ’58” or “the girl of S.” At times, it seems as though she were looking at herself in an old photograph or a scene in a movie. She tells us when she is getting lost in the story, and where her memory goes blank.
Reading this book in 2020, one is tempted to think of these gaps and tricks of memory in terms of trauma—the kind of trauma that keeps women from giving, or getting, a full account of their own lives. Completion, we’re told, is a necessary condition for truth. “Don’t tell us the story of your life, it’s full of holes,” the other counsellors like to say. Her peers dig up her letters and read them out loud to one another. They drag her to H’s door.
Central to her work is an awareness that the most intimate moments of life are always governed by the circumstances in which they occur—that probing the personal will also involve investigating the historical. This is clearest in “Happening” , an account of an abortion Ernaux had in 1963. Early in the book, she describes going to see an acquaintance who is known as an activist for greater access to birth control. He tries to sleep with her. Then he tells her that he can’t help her.
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Nobel Prize in literature awarded to French writer Annie ErnauxFrench author Annie Ernaux, 82, started out writing autobiographical novels but quickly abandoned fiction in favor of memoirs.
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Annie Ernaux, French Author of ‘Happening,’ Wins Nobel Prize for LiteratureThe autobiography was adapted for the screen as the abortion drama that was directed by Audrey Diwan and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival 2021.
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French writer Annie Ernaux wins the 2022 Nobel Prize in literatureJUST IN: The Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to French writer Annie Ernaux, best known for her works that blur the line between memoir and fiction such as 'A Woman's Story' and 'I Remain in Darkness.'
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Nobel Prize in literature goes to French author Annie ErnauxFrench author Annie Ernaux was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature for 'the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory,' the Swedish Academy announced.
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French writer Annie Ernaux awarded Nobel Prize in literatureThe 82-year-old 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.
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