French literature

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed

Template:French literature sidebar Template:French literature Template:Culture of France French literature (Template:Langx) generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in the French language by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, etc. is referred to as Francophone literature.

For centuries, French literature has been an object of national pride for French people, and it has been one of the most influential aspects of the literature of Europe.<ref>French literature Template:Webarchive Discover France</ref><ref>Romance languages and literatures: why study French ? Template:Webarchive University of Michigan</ref> France ranks first on the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country.

One of the first known examples of French literature is the Song of Roland, the first major work in a series of poems known as, "chansons de geste".<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The French language is a Romance language derived from Latin and heavily influenced principally by Celtic and Frankish. Beginning in the 11th century, literature written in medieval French was one of the oldest vernacular (non-Latin) literatures in western Europe and it became a key source of literary themes in the Middle Ages across the continent.

Although the European prominence of French literature was eclipsed in part by vernacular literature in Italy in the 14th century, literature in France in the 16th century underwent a major creative evolution, and through the political and artistic programs of the Ancien Régime, French literature came to dominate European letters in the 17th century.

In the 18th century, French became the literary lingua franca and diplomatic language of western Europe (and, to a certain degree, in America), and French letters have had a profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time being heavily influenced by these other national traditions. Africa and the far East have brought the French language to non-European cultures that are transforming and adding to the French literary experience today.

Under the aristocratic ideals of the Ancien Régime (the "honnête homme"), the nationalist spirit of post-revolutionary France, and the mass educational ideals of the Third Republic and modern France, the French have come to have a profound cultural attachment to their literary heritage. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater and poetry (often learnt by heart). The literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary prizes are major news. The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are important linguistic and artistic institutions in France, and French television features shows on writers and poets (one of the most watched shows on French television was Apostrophes,<ref name="Cohen">Roger Cohen, "The Media Business; Books Star on TV, but Only in France" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times, September 10, 1990.</ref> a weekly talk show on literature and the arts). Literature matters deeply to the people of France and plays an important role in their sense of identity.

As of 2022, fifteen French authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature which is more than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country. In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he declined it, stating that "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

French Nobel Prize in Literature winnersEdit

File:Henri Fantin-Latour - By the Table - Google Art Project.jpg

Paul Verlaine (far left) and Arthur Rimbaud (second to left) in an 1872 painting by Henri Fantin-Latour.

File:Walk Samuel Beckett, Paris (France) - Philippe Binant Archives.JPG

Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France). Nobel Prize 1969.

File:Jean Ricardou and Claude Simon (Cerisy, France) - Philippe Binant Archives.jpg

Seminar with Claude Simon, Cerisy (France). Nobel Prize 1985.

File:Littérature contemporaine, France, 1980 - Philippe Binant Archives.jpg

French contemporary literature workshop with Marc Avelot, Philippe Binant, Bernard Magné, Claudette Oriol-Boyer, Jean Ricardou, Cerisy (France), 1980.

For most of the 20th century, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation.<ref>National Literature Nobel Prize shares 1901–2009 by citizenship at the time of the award Template:Webarchive and by country of birth Template:Webarchive. From J. Schmidhuber (2010), Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century Template:Webarchive at arXiv:1009.2634v1 Template:Webarchive</ref> The following French or French language authors have won a Nobel Prize in Literature:

1901 – Sully Prudhomme (The first Nobel Prize in Literature)
1904 – Frédéric Mistral (wrote in Occitan)
1915 – Romain Rolland
1921 – Anatole France
1927 – Henri Bergson
1937 – Roger Martin du Gard
1947 – André Gide
1952 – François Mauriac
1957 – Albert Camus
1960 – Saint-John Perse
1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize)
1969 – Samuel Beckett (Irish, wrote in English and French)
1985 – Claude Simon
2008 – J. M. G. Le Clézio
2014 – Patrick Modiano
2022 – Annie Ernaux

French literary awardsEdit

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – created in 1948, for crime and detective fiction.
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – created 1918.
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – created in 1989.
Prix Femina – created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women.
Prix Goncourt – created 1903, given to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year".
Prix Goncourt des Lycéens – created in 1987.
Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud – created in 1957.
Prix Médicis – created 1958, awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match their talent."
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – created in 1926.
Prix Tour-Apollo Award – 1972–1990, given to the best science fiction novel published in French during the preceding year.
Prix des Deux Magots – created in 1933.