Annie Ernaux as a phenomenon of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature 2022

Abstract

The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022 was awarded to the French writer Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”. According to the Nobel Committee, “in her writing, Annie Ernaux consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class. Annie Ernaux clearly believes in the liberating power of writing. Ernaux's work is uncompromising and written in plain language, scraped clean. And when she with great courage and clinical acuity reveals the agony of the experience of class, describing shame, humiliation, jealousy or inability to see who you are, she has achieved something admirable and enduring”.