Contents
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022 was awarded to Annie Erno. We tell why the work of the French writer was noted by the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
What happened
- On October 6, 2022, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French writer Annie Ernault “for her courage and clinical acuity with which she reveals the roots, alienations and collective limitations of personal memory.”
- In his work, Erno consistently and from different points of view explores life in all its manifestations: from gender relations to language.
- Annie Arno herself believes that she is an “ethnologist of herself”, and not an author of fiction.
- When creating her works, Arno was inspired by the work of Marcel Proust “In Search of Lost Time” and the works of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
- Popularity came to the writer after the release of the story “Place in Life” (La place). In the work, she managed to create an impartial portrait of her father and the entire social environment that shaped his personality.
- In 1990, the book “Woman” (Une femme) was published., the center of which was the image of the mother of the writer – a strong woman who was able to maintain her dignity in difficult life situations.
- In 2001, the writer was not afraid to raise another topic tabooed by society. In the book “Event” (L’évenement) she described trying to solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies in the late 1960s. Until 1975, abortion was banned in France, and women had to use methods that were unsafe for their health. In 2021, a film adaptation of the book was released, which received the main prize of the Venice Film Festival.
- According to the experts of the Nobel Committee, “the topics that Erno raises in his works will always be relevant.” For example, in the book “Years” (Les années), the power of social conventions over human life is clearly demonstrated. The German poet Durs Grünbein called the work a groundbreaking “sociological epic” for the contemporary Western world.
What does it mean
At all times, writers have become the voice of their time, and Annie Erno is no exception. According to the writer, “literature should be embarrassing, it is connected with something sexual.” The works are designed to break taboos, expose the unspeakable and become a way of influencing the world.
In her works, the writer reveals topics about which it was customary to remain silent before. Her autobiographical books explore in depth personal experiences and feelings in a context of changing social and class relations. Through the prism of her own life, she speaks without embarrassment about sexuality, passion, abortion, illness, the position of women in families, the conditions for the existence of the proletariat, and more.
Erno’s literary audacity has already inspired the younger generation of writers. For example, the French playwright Edouard Louis admitted in an interview: “Annie Ernault is one of those people who made me understand that I can write about my life, about people who suffer, about the humiliated. That I can exist in public and political space without the constant obligation to justify myself.
And the English publisher Jacques Testard explained that he considers Erno “an important feminist writer”, and the work “The Years” for him is “an absolutely phenomenal book, undoubtedly a masterpiece.”