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Le Clezio's Nobel Throws Lifeline to French Culture: Mark Beech
12 تشرين اول, 2008
Le Clezio's Nobel Throws Lifeline to French Culture: Mark Beech

Commentary by Mark Beech

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- ``I was not at all prepared -- I was reading a book,'' said French novelist Jean Marie Gustave le Clezio of the moment he learned by telephone call that he'd won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Le Clezio's reaction was less colorful than that of Doris Lessing, who was getting out of a taxi when she was accosted by reporters and told of her victory in 2007. She responded, ``Oh Christ!''

The book industry may hope that many others will follow Le Clezio's lead, not just because it was more measured than Lessing's, but simply because more people would read books. Even better, they might buy more books.

That, in the age of the Internet and television, would be something of a miracle, and maybe too much to hope for.

Possibly, and more realistically, they may read and purchase more of Le Clezio's work -- he is not the best known of authors, even with the Nobel win. There were plenty of headlines about ``Mr. Nobel Unknown'' as the committee again passed on the likes of Philip Roth to go for someone whose name was on nobody's lips.

Still, Le Clezio, 68, is another in a long line of worthy winners. This might be another way of saying boring.

The Nobel committee thinks otherwise, calling him an ``author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.''

Cultural Revival?

The greatest hope, though, is that Le Clezio will do something a little more miraculous: breathe some life back into French culture. Born in Nice in 1940, Le Clezio is the first writer in French to win since novelist Claude Simon in 1985.

In November 2007, Time published a story entitled ``The Death of French Culture,'' in which it asked whether the land of Proust, Monet, Piaf and Truffaut had lost its status as a cultural superpower.

That may be an exaggeration, even with the decline of the French language at the expense of English (or is that American?)

It was an issue, though, that Le Clezio addressed head-on in his news conference after the award.

``I heard for the first time that people are talking of the decline of French culture. I'm not aware of it. I deny it. It is a rich and diversified culture and there's no risk of its decline,'' he said.

Of course, Le Clezio's win is one of many examples of a French creative revival. Factor in, for example, the ``rentree litteraire,'' with at least 700 books put out each September; the various prizes, Renaudot, Goncourt and so on. Intellectual life in France is alive and well. The heirs of Sartre live on, and not just at the Sorbonne.

Cannes Prize

This year at the Cannes Film Festival, actor-director Sean Penn and the rest of the jury unanimously gave the Palme d'Or award to ``Entre les Murs'' (``The Class''), about a bunch of rowdy school kids in the suburbs of Paris. It was France's first Cannes win in 21 years.

Le Clezio is an unlikely savior in that he is an atypical Frenchman, with both French and Mauritian citizenship. His literary influences extend beyond France; in addition to Emile Zola and Comte de Lautreamont, he says he draws inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson and James Joyce.

``Mauritius is my country,'' he said in the news conference. ``I'm very happy for the island of Mauritius, which gets no subsidies for culture and fights for the French language.''

Le Clezio's long journeys from France to remote outposts of Africa and Latin America yielded writing about exotic, endangered cultures. Recently, his work has taken a more personal turn, examining his family's history in France and Mauritius.

``I am very proud,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. ``It's an honor for France, the French language, and the French-speaking world.''

As a cultural riposte against the rising tide of English works, its significance should be put in context.

Ignorant Americans

The Academy's permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl, stoked controversy in recent weeks by saying that American authors are impeded because the U.S. is ``too isolated'' and weighed down by a restraining ``ignorance.''

``Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world ... not the United States,'' Engdahl told the Associated Press on Sept. 30. He added that Americans' work was hampered by a focus on ``trends in their own mass culture.''

American writers such as Roth, Cormac McCarthy and Joyce Carol Oates have been mentioned as possible Nobel winners. At yesterday's briefing, Le Clezio said Roth ``will have this prize one day, and even if he doesn't, he is a great writer.''

In the meantime, Le Clezio and French culture fans can have their day of victory and proudly defy the growing band of critics and artistic empire-builders who say French culture is fading as much as book publishing itself.

(Mark Beech writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Mark Beech in London at mbeech@bloomberg.net.

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