2022 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux has become the first French woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish committee awarded the 82-year-old for the "courage and clinical acuity" of her books which explore the roots, alienation and collective constraints behind her personal memories. Europe's press praises the decision to pay tribute to an intrepid and political writer.

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taz, die tageszeitung (DE) /

From the perspective of naked reality

The Committee made the right decision, says taz:

“This year's Nobel Prize for Literature has not gone to the venerable, the sophisticated, the refined, but to the shabby, the icy, the sharply bleeding. ... Ernaux is not an artist who examines the poor and unseen but one who writes directly from that perspective. ... The author, who is now 82 years old, has remained true to herself despite her worldly fame. She is always involved in current political events, takes a stand, defends the destitute. ... The French author is being awarded the Nobel Prize among other things 'for her courage', the Swedish Academy said. In this case, this is not an empty phrase.”

Kleine Zeitung (AT) /

Belated recognition

The Kleine Zeitung also welcomes the Academy's choice:

“This is a literary decision! That has not and is not always a matter of course. ... The first translations of her books into German show how difficult the 'literary world' has long found it to assess this outstanding writer. The covers featured raunchy, lightly clad female bodies. Ernaux was pigeonholed under 'erotic women's literature'. What nonsense. ... And what a correct assessment and classification that has now been made in Stockholm.”

La Repubblica (IT) /

A prize for women's rights

La Repubblica explains:

“This is a Nobel Prize for women's rights and for those who turn their lives and their literature into an instrument in the struggle for these rights. Because Annie Ernaux has always chosen sides: 'I will fight to my last breath so that women can choose to be a mother, or not to be. Contraception and abortion are a fundamental right.' ... There is no escaping the fact that abortion is once again at the centre of our political debate. ... And this Nobel Prize in Literature for an interpreter of this commitment is a call to protect the secularity of the West from the onslaught of fundamentalism.”