Annie Ernaux

-

 You may know that the Nobel Prize for Literature 2022 was awarded to Annie Ernaux. She is the first French woman to receive it and only the 17th woman since it was first handed out in 1901. 

 The citation mentioned that it was awarded, “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.”

 You will notice the term used, 'clinical acuity', which is unusual. The reason for this is her style of writing which she terms as ’flat writing'. It is marked by narration of facts, often hard hitting, that make a statement against an oppressive society. 

 In her writing, Annie Ernaux consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class. It goes back to her roots, where her father ran a small shop and the family had difficulty maintaining themselves except for bare necessities. The disparities they felt became magnified and it was those personal memories that she carried throughout her life that became the topic of her books. She is 82 now, and it is an indication of how intense and troubled her memories must have been to be reflected in her current writings. 

 In her Nobel Prize lecture delivered on 7th December 2022, she said, "I am finding the sentence that will give me the freedom and the firmness to speak without trembling in this place to which you have invited me this evening". It was the sentence written in her diary 60 years ago, that appeared instantly in all its clarity and violence, "Jécrirai pour venger ma race, I will write to avenge my people". 

 Her path to authorship was long and arduous. Among her novels are ‘A Man's Place’, ‘A Woman's Story’ and ‘Years’. Ernaux's work is uncompromising written in plain language, the 'flat writing', scraped clean. 

 And it is when she started writing with courage to reveal the agony of the experience of class, describing shame, humiliation, jealousy or inability to see who you are, she achieved something admirable and enduring.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Weekend Musings: What One Life Taught Me About Peace

-
Image
  Remembering Albert Schweitzer For reasons I cannot fully explain, Albert Schweitzer came back to me recently. My first encounter with him was in childhood, when I was barely ten or twelve. I remember a book — blue in colour — far beyond my reading ability at that age. I remember his photograph inside. I remember that it spoke of peace and of service to humanity. I understood neither in any meaningful way, yet something stayed. Perhaps children recognise sincerity before they understand ideas. Life moved on. Over five decades, his name would surface now and then — in passing references, in conversations, in lists of Nobel Peace Prize winners — but I never found the time, or perhaps the inner readiness, to go deeper. And yet, the impression never faded. Today, that unfinished encounter seems to ask for closure. Albert Schweitzer was many things: theologian, philosopher, musician, doctor. But what sets him apart is not achievement; it is choice. At a time when intellectual recognit...
Read more

Weekend Musings: The Leap of the Frog — A Moment in Haiku

-
Image
 An old silent pond— a frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again. This weekend’s Musings arose from an invitation to reflect on these lines by Matsuo Bashō. What began as an invitation soon turned into a gentle challenge, as it became clear that the poem invites many ways of seeing. It can even invite silence, as we honour the stillness of the pond. The image is simple, almost bare. A still pond. A sudden leap. A brief splash. And then silence again. Nothing is explained, nothing is concluded. What is offered is a moment, complete in itself. Yet, being a Musing, I must still arrive at my own reading. In these lines, Bashō draws us into a world where there is no past or future — both constructs of the mind, or the ego. He lives entirely moment to moment, in full awareness of it. The past becomes nothing more than memory, a storehouse of conditioning, biases, and habits. The future is merely the drama projected from that past. In such a state of awareness, action is no longer ...
Read more

Election Day Musing: My Keemti Vote

-
Image
Having just completed my duty, or shall we say my right, by casting my vote, a few observations and thoughts came to mind. The walk to the polling booth is something I take almost every few days, so I was not expecting anything eventful to happen. But I was in for a surprise. Unknown people were greeting me and smiling. One particular person, whom I had neither met nor seen before, actually called out my name and said, “Mahimkar saheb, 4 number lakshat theva.” I noticed regular shopkeepers and party workers standing in groups, and it was not difficult to guess their affiliations. Another thing I noticed was a white band across the road with “200 meters” written on it. Closer to the center, it read “100 meters”. When I had seen this a few days earlier, I had not known what it was for, but today it became clear. Strangely, I noticed one more thing—the streets were extra clean, as if one day’s clean roads would influence our decision! The center itself had standard security measures, and...
Read more