Unexpected and interesting facts surrounding the Nobel Prize in French literature.

To French readers, the name Modiano is certainly not unfamiliar. In the bookFrench literature since 1968[1]Authors Vercier and Lecarme included this writer in a rather interesting chapter: "Three Faces of Contemporary Novelism," in which they assert that all three are very fortunate to have won awards, representing the last remaining brilliant figures of the latter half of the 20th century in France. Of these three, except for George Perec, the other two, Patric Modiano and Le Clézio, have both received Nobel Prizes to date. In 2008, when Le Clézio received the award, French readers may not have been surprised, but many readers outside France, such as in Germany, Sweden, and especially the United States, complained that they didn't even know his name, let alone his works. Thus, even in a literary powerhouse like France, each Nobel Prize awarded to a writer always causes surprise. Perhaps this can also be considered "an interesting aspect" for their admiring readers...

How many Nobel Prizes has French literature won?

Since the first year the Nobel Prize in Literature was officially awarded (1901), the following French writers have received the award: Sully Prudhomme (poet, 1901), Frédéric Mistral (poet, 1904), Romain Rolland (writer, 1915), Anatole France (writer, 1921), Henri Bergson (philosopher and literary critic, 1927), Roger Martin du Gard (writer, 1937), André Gide (writer, 1947), Francois Mauriac (writer, 1952), Albert Camus (writer, 1957), Saint-John Perse (poet, 1960), Jean Paul Sartre (writer, 1964), Claude Simon (writer, 1985), Jean Marie-Gustave Le Clézio (writer, 2008), and Patrick Modiano (2014). Thus, as of 2014, France has had a total of 14 Nobel Prizes. However, this number could be even higher if we include other writers who, although not of French origin, lived in France at the time of winning the prize (or wrote in both French and English or French and Chinese), such as Gao Xingjian (China, 2012), Beckett (Ireland, 1969), and Bunine (Russia, 1918). Compared to American and British literature, two countries that share the most widely spoken language today (English) and are also two of the world's major literary traditions, France is still considered to have more Nobel Prizes (14, or according to Wikipedia statistics, 13.5; England: 11; America: 10.5). Why, not being larger than America or older than England, has French literature achieved such great success? Is it due to luck or favoritism towards French literature? Let me clarify: there is no luck or favoritism involved. Since the 17th century, compared to other American and European literatures, French literature has been considered superior. Paris, since the 17th century, has been the center of European culture, producing literary giants whose works are difficult for any other nation to match: Descartes, Boileau, Molière, Corneille, Racine… It is also the birthplace of many literary movements worldwide. French literature is often founded on ideologies and philosophies, thus writers often produce great works of "universal" scope, fitting the criteria for the Nobel Prize awarded by the Swedish Academy. The case of Japanese writer Murakami, who has yet to win the Nobel Prize, might be due to factors other than "sex," and perhaps his works haven't yet reached the "universal" level required for the award?

A kind of "melting pot" among French Nobel laureates

France's advantage in Nobel competitions can also be explained by this reason: France, a major cultural center of Europe, once attracted many intellectuals and writers from various places: Asia, Europe, and even America. The policy of creative freedom within France has truly brought success to its literature. However, whether Nobel laureates are purely French or not requires an objective and fair assessment. For example, even the most recent winner, Patrice Modiano, is not entirely French. Officially, his father, Albert Modiano, was a Jewish businessman; and his mother, Louisa Colpijn, was a Belgian comedian. The case of Nobel laureate Le Clézio in 2008 is even more complicated: he has roots in the African island nation of Mauritius. Even he himself rarely stayed long in his own country, often living a nomadic, reclusive life in various places throughout his writing career. Gao Xingjian, in a way, can be considered the "French Nobel" because he wrote and received the award in a completely French setting, but he was still of Chinese descent. The fourth case is the absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett (Nobel, 1969), who wrote in both French and English and was of Irish descent, but was living in France when he received the award. Samuel Beckett's name has also been consistently featured in French literature textbooks for a long time. Finally, Ivan Bounin, a writer who wrote in Russian and was truly a Russian writer, was residing in France and no longer held Russian citizenship when he received the award. Indeed, French literature has many interesting aspects! The Nobel Prize is even more fascinating!

What's so special about the French Nobel Prize in Literature?

In their lives and writing careers, few writers have failed to feel honored and happy to receive the Nobel Prize. After all, the Nobel Prize remains the most prestigious award, not only for its professional merit but also for its monetary value. Let's compare: the Goncourt Prize, awarded annually to French novelists, is also a major "brand," but its monetary value is only a few euros, while the Nobel Prize comes with millions. And even years from now, people will still debate the true nature of awards, whether they accurately reflect the real value of a writer (including the Nobel). But one thing is undeniable: those who receive the prize are not only truly talented, their works must have transcended international standards, but they themselves must also be role models of "morality and virtue." Therefore, even within French literature, Alain Robbe-Grillet, the leading figure of the New Novel movement in the 1960s, could have been awarded the prize, but because he also made films "containing many sexual elements," that year (1985), the prize was given to Claude Simon, also a New Novelist but less famous. The second case, according to Chinese researcher Wu Yueqian, is that André Malraux, who was also very deserving of the prize, was given preferential treatment in 1947 because André Gide, the author of...CounterfeitersBecause he was too old, Malraux was rejected. Then, in 1958, when Malraux was the French Minister of Culture, the Nobel Prize committee rejected him again due to public disapproval of awarding the prize to an "official" (British Prime Minister Churchill), so "official Malraux" once again missed out on the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Regarding money, are French Nobel laureates happy? Most of them don't say it outright, but it's hard to say they're "unhappy." However, among the French writers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, there is one who once... resolutely refused to accept it. That is the existentialist Jean Paul Sartre. There are many different interpretations of why Sartre refused the Nobel Prize. Some believe it was because he felt "offended" that the writer Camus, also an existentialist but "less talented," had been awarded the prize in 1957. Sartre himself asserted: "Why did I refuse the award? Because I felt that for quite some time it had become clearly politically charged. If I accepted the Nobel Prize – and if I delivered an arrogant speech in Stockholm, which would be absurd – I would have been disqualified."[2]Sartre's refusal of the Nobel Prize generated considerable media attention at the time, with much discussion both from a professional and financial perspective. Jean-Paul Sartre himself recounted that many readers later wrote to him expressing their outrage at his refusal of such a large sum of money. Some American readers even scornfully remarked, "If someone offered me a hundred dollars and I refused, then I wouldn't be human." Others wrote to him, "implying" that if he didn't want the prize, they would accept it in his place, because "we are very poor," suggesting that as a writer, he "should have compassion for the poor."

In short, the Nobel Prize, a prestigious literary award in the world of literature, is surrounded by many interesting and surprising stories, not only in French literature. Let's remember that as early as 1943, when Vietnamese literature was just beginning to reach out to the world, Nam Cao, in his short stories...The Superfluous LifeThe author has portrayed a writer named Ho who openly expressed his intense desire to "write a Nobel Prize-winning work." Glory in any profession is a goal to strive for in life. For writers, receiving a Nobel Prize for their writing is an even greater source of happiness.

                                                                                   The last days of 2014