An exploration of the life and work of Annie Ernaux

Please join us for an exploration of the life and work of author Annie Ernaux, featuring a presentation by writer and scholar Martine Sauret with commentary from Bruno Chaouat. This event will be in English, and will be followed by light refreshments.

There is no cost to attend, but we encourage a $10 suggested donation to support our cultural programs. Register your attendance below.

Annie Ernaux

In October, Annie Ernaux was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in literature, becoming only the 17th woman to receive the honor. Having published more than twenty books over five decades, Ernaux is known for her intimate and famously short razor edge style. Her writing has spoken particularly to women and to others who, like her, come from a working class seldom depicted with such clarity in literature. However, for many people not clued-in to the French literary world, the Nobel Prize announcement may have been their first time hearing Ernaux’s name.

In this exploration of Ernaux’s life and work, we will try to understand who she is and why she is so important in literature. Martine Sauret and Bruno Chaouat will guide us through excerpts of Ernaux’s writing and interviews throughout the years in which Ernaux denies her autobiographic writing, discusses her ambitions to write about the problems of people (especially kids, teenagers, and women), and her fascination with subjects such as family, marriage, civility, death, manipulation, pregnancy, and abortion.

Martine Sauret

Martine Sauret received her Ph.D. with Honors from the University of Minnesota in June 1991. She is currently an associate professor at Macalester College in Saint Paul, and occasionally teaches at Alliance Française - Mpls/St Paul. She is the author of several books and has written extensively on Renaissance Literature, Early Modern France, and Francophone studies for various scholarly journals.

Bruno Chaouat

Bruno Chaouat received his PhD in French literature from Emory University. Since 2002, he has been teaching at the University of Minnesota in the departments of French and Italian, as well as in the Center for Jewish Studies. He is currently working on several different projects, among which a book on the return of ancient Gnostic themes in French modern literature and philosophy in the long 20th century.