Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio Biography
Summary
"Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio", or "J.M.G. Le Clézio" (born 13 April 1940) is a French novelist. The author of over thirty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Biography
Le Clezio was born in the French Riviera city of Nice to an English father and French mother. His ancestors emigrated from Brittany to the "île de France"-today's Mauritius-in the 18th century. His family lived for a time in Africa where his father served as a surgeon in the British army. During World War II, the family was separated, his father being unable to join his wife and children in Nice where Le Clézio studied at the Collège littéraire universitaire. After graduation, he moved to the United States as a teacher.
A great traveler, Le Clézio has been writing since age seven or eight. After majoring in French literature, he became famous at 23 with his first novel, "Le Procès-Verbal" ("The Interrogation"), which was shortlisted for the prix Goncourt and for which he was awarded the prix Renaudot in 1963.
Since then he has published about thirty books, including short stories, novels, essays, two translations on the subject of Indian mythology, countless prefaces and reviews as well as a few contributions to collective publications.
His writing career may be divided into two main periods:
From 1963 to 1975, Le Clézio explored themes like insanity, language, writing, devoting himself to formal experimentation in the wake of such contemporaries as Georges Perec or Michel Butor. Le Clézio's public image was that of an innovator and a rebel, drawing praise from Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze.
In the late 1970s, Le Clézio's style underwent a drastic change; he abandoned experimentation and the mood of his novels became less tormented as he broached themes like childhood, adolescence or traveling, attracting a broader, more popular audience. In 1980, Le Clézio was the first winner of the newly created grand prix Paul-Morand, awarded to "Désert" by the Académie française.
In 1994 a survey conducted by the French literary magazine "Lire" showed that 13% of the readers considered him to be the greatest living French language writer.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008. He is the first French citizen to receive the prize since Gao Xingjian in 2000, and the first French-language writer to win since Claude Simon in 1985. The Swedish Academy, in announcing the award, called Le Clezio an 'author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.'
Bibliography
"Le Procès-Verbal" (Prix Renaudot 1963) (The Interrogation)
"La Fièvre" (Fever)
"Déluge" (The Flood) (1966)
"L'Extase matérielle" (Material Ecstasy) (1967)
Terra Amata (novel) (Beloved Earth) (1967)
"Le Livre des fuites" (The Book of Escapes)
La Guerre (War)
"Haï" (1971)
"Mydriase" (1973)
"Les Géants" (The Giants) (1973)
"Voyages de l'autre côté" (Journeys Beyond) (1975)
"Les Prophéties du Chilam Balam" (Chilam Balam Prophecies) (1976)
"Vers les icebergs (Essai sur Henri Michaux)" (To the Icebergs; an essay on Henri Michaux)(1978)
"Mondo et autres histoires" (Mondo and other stories) (1978)
"L'Inconnu sur la Terre" (The Stranger on the Earth) (1978)
"Trois villes saintes" (Three Holy Cities)
"Désert (novel)" (1980) (Desert)
"La Ronde et autres faits divers" The Round and other cold hard facts
"Relation de Michoacan"
"Le Chercheur d'Or" (The Prospector)
"Diego et Frida" (Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo)
" Voyage à Rodrigues" (Journey to Rodrigues)
"Le Rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue" (The Mexican Dream or Broken Thought)
"Printemps et autres saisons" (Spring and other Seasons)
"Onitsha (novel)" (a reference to the African city of Onitsha)
"Étoile errante" (Wandering Star)
"Pawana"
"La Quarantaine" (Quarantine)
"Poisson d'or" ("The Golden Fish")
"Gens des nuages" (with Jémia Le Clézio) (The Cloud People)
"La Fête chantée" (Sung Celebration)
"Hasard (suivi d'Angoli Mala)" (Serendipity)
"C?ur Brûle et autres romances" (Burnt Heart and other romances)
"Révolutions"
"L'Africain" (2004) (The African)
"Ourania" (2006)
Awards
1963: Prix Théophraste-Renaudot
1972: Prix Littéraire Valery-Larbaud
1980: Grand Prix de Littérature Paul-Morand, awarded by the Académie Française
1997: Grand Prix Jean-Giono
1998: Prix Prince-de-Monaco
2008: Stig Dagermanpriset
2008: Nobel Prize in Literature
External links
(J.M.G. Le Clézio (1940-)) , Biography, from `Books and Writers`.
(Interview with Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio) , in "Label France" No. 45 (English)
French Writer Wins Nobel Prize, (New York Times)
('J. M. G. Le Clézio, Nobel laureate') : A collection of pieces on Le Clézio, from (TLS) , October 9 2008.
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.
