French author Annie Ernaux is the first female French writer to receive the prize, and the 17th woman to win the Nobel prize in literature.
Ernaux’s work is mostly autobiographical and sociological. She is a feminist writer who focuses on the often overlooked working class. She also expressed support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the alliance of far-left, left and green parties the Nupes in his 2017 and 2022 presidency campaign. Her writing style is concise, simple, and reflective of her personal life, gender and class disparity experiences within French society.
In the French article above, an excerpt of a 2017 interview is cited:
“Je ne suis pas exhibitionniste. Je ne suis pas autocentrée même si on me l’a reproché. Je crois que j’ai toujours parlé de moi en termes distanciés, comme si j’étais le lieu d’une expérience que je restituais. Je parle de moi parce que c’est le sujet que je connais le mieux quand même… Je m’intéresse à ce qu’il a pu y avoir de social déposé en moi comme dans tout le monde“
(“I am not an exhibitionist. I am not centered on myself, even though some accuse me of this. I think that I’ve always talked about my experiences with distanced terms, as if I was the place of an experience which I was rendering. I talk about myself because it is the topic I know the best, after all…I am interested in what society may have been dropped into me as well as everyone else.”)