Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux: "Literature is a space of emancipation"

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Annie Ernaux: "Want to keep writing in a personal way"

Photo: FREDRIK PERSSON / AFP

After signing a BDS petition, Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, was widely criticized and the Central Council of Jews accused her of anti-Semitism.

Now she refrained from political topics at a press conference in Stockholm for the award ceremony.

It was "not a crime to have signed BDS petitions," she said when asked by journalists.

For her, the award means that more people "knock on her door" to hear their opinions on various topics.

However, this does not mean that she will devote more time to politics.

"I have to say that above all I want to continue to write in a personal way, and not petitions," said the writer.

In a subsequent speech at the award ceremony, the author did not go into the allegations any further.

She writes to "revenge her race," according to Ernaux: In her speech, she talked about her childhood in a lower-class family, how she worked her way up through her studies and, as a woman and mother of two, allegedly fought against injustice again and again in her writing career.

Literature is a »space of emancipation«.

"A big shock"

According to Ernaux, her desire to write has increased with the award.

The French writer said she could not say to what extent the Nobel Prize would influence her work.

“What I can say with certainty is that I have even more desire to write.” It was a great shock to receive the award, but it was also an honor.

At the beginning of October, the Swedish Academy announced that Ernaux would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year.

The Nobel Prizes will be presented at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo this Saturday.

isb/dpa