Anne Ernault responds to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature: Delighted and proud

　　On October 6, the Swedish Academy awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature to French writer Annie Ernaux.

Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which decided the award, announced the decision at a press conference in Stockholm, praising her for her "brave and perceptive revelation of the origins, estrangement and collective repression of individual memory".

　　According to the New York Times, Malm said Ernault could not be reached by the Nobel committee by phone, but she quickly learned of her award.

That afternoon, she walked out of her home on the outskirts of Paris and had a brief conversation with a reporter from The New York Times.

She looked a little overwhelmed, saying she got the news from the radio.

"I'm happy, I'm proud," she added, ignoring the hustle and bustle around her because her neighbours were doing construction work on their house.

　　Ernault, 82, is the 17th woman writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature since it was established in 1901.

She is the second woman writer to win the award in three years, following Louise Glick, the 2020 American poet.

　　Ernault's work has long been praised by critics.

Her autobiographical novels defy "her genre demands—a desire for melodramatic intimate revelations and the fluidity of fictional storytelling," Claire Messud wrote in The Times in 1998.

Instead, the books "offer searing authenticity and show the smoothness of much of what we call memoir."

　　That same day, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted that Ernault's book "unveils women's intimacy in a very humble but unadorned way."

　　Writer and critic Catherine Taylor called Ernault "the great chronicle of a generation."

"Now this great chronicler has won the greatest literary prize," she said.

　　Jacques Testard of Ernault's UK publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, described Ernault as an "outstanding and unique writer" in interviews with The Guardian and The New York Times. For a decade she has been documenting the feelings of women in the 20th and 21st centuries.

He added that her book has social and political relevance both inside and outside France, given events such as the recent US Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade.

　　Ernault's "literature has always been about writing about her life and somehow getting to the bottom of it...I think she wrote about every important event in her life, realised from an early age," Testard said. Social class, to the death of her father and mother, her illegal abortion in France in the 1960s, her first sexual experience, and then writing about love, passion and desire. She's been doing this for 50 years, she The creation is very clear.”

　　With her interest in memory and writing life, Testad says, "Proust is a very clear precedent for Erno".

She was also influenced by Simone de Beauvoir, although the two women came from very different social backgrounds.

Ernault came from a working-class community, like the French sociologist, public intellectual and writer Pierre Bourdieu.

　　French film director Audrey Diwan adapted Ernault's 2000 novel "It's Happening" into a critically acclaimed film.

She said in a phone interview with The New York Times that her work has an "raw sincerity" that "talks to so many people and becomes one 'us,' a collective voice that transcends borders." She added that the award "Making this massive amount of work a well-deserved focus."

　　In addition to Ernault's literary achievements, many people also praised his political achievements.

Among them was the philosopher and sociologist Didier Eribon.

"I have a lot of admiration for her, not just as a writer, but for her activism," Eriben said in a phone interview with The New York Times.

　　Ernault said Ernault supported the yellow vest movement, which began in 2018, that brought French cities to a standstill; while protesting against rising fuel prices and falling living standards.

She also regularly supports striking workers and highlights their plight in her book.

"Not only did she become a model herself, but she inspired others to start writing about class-based violence and trauma," Eriben added.

　　Eriburn first met Ernault in 2002, shortly after Pierre Bourdieu's death.

He added that she has been an important inspiration for him.

When he wrote "Returning to Reims," ​​a memoir about growing up as a gay child of factory workers, Eriben said: "I have a bunch of Anne Ernault's on my desk. Books, I open them up when I can't find a way to tell a story. She always finds a way to capture in one sentence what I can't express in a page."

　　For Ernault's award, Eriben said it was good news.

"The work of Anne Ernault marked a revival in French literature," he said.

　　Ernault has long been a favorite for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

　　In recent years, the Swedish Academy has tried to increase the diversity of authors selected.

It was criticized earlier that, before the October 6 announcement, 95 of the past 118 Nobel laureates were from Europe or North America, and only 16 of them were women.

　　Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel committee, defended the choice of another European writer.

There are very few female winners, he said at a news conference on October 6.

"Our focus must be on literary quality first," he said.