Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (French:[ʒɑ̃maʁiɡystavləklezjo]; 13 April 1940), usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, of French and Mauritian nationality, is a writer and professor. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963
Prix Renaudot for his novel Le Procès-Verbal and the
2008 Nobel Prize in Literature for his life's work, as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".[1]
Biography
Le Clézio's mother was born in the
French Riviera city of
Nice, his father on the island of
Mauritius (which was a British possession, but his father was ethnically Breton). Both his father's and his mother's ancestors were originally from
Morbihan, on the south coast of
Brittany.[2]
His paternal ancestor François Alexis Le Clézio fled France in 1798 and settled with his wife and daughter on
Mauritius, which was then a French colony but would soon pass into British hands. The colonists were allowed to maintain their customs and use the French language. Le Clézio has never lived in Mauritius for more than a few months at a time, but he has stated that he regards himself both as a Frenchman and a Mauritian.[3][4] He has dual French and Mauritian citizenship (Mauritius gained independence in 1968) and calls Mauritius his "little fatherland".[5][6]
Le Clézio was born in Nice, his mother's native city, during
World War II when his father was serving in the
British Army in Nigeria.[7] He was raised in
Roquebillière, a small village near Nice until 1948 when he, his mother, and his brother boarded a ship to join his father in
Nigeria. His 1991 novel Onitsha is partly autobiographical. In a 2004
essay, he reminisced about his childhood in Nigeria and his relationship with his parents.
After studying at the
University of Bristol in England from 1958 to 1959,[8] Le Clézio finished his undergraduate degree at Nice's Institut d'études littéraires.[9] In 1964 Le Clézio earned a master's degree from the
University of Provence with a thesis on
Henri Michaux and the mystical experience.[10]
After several years spent in London and Bristol, Le Clézio moved to the United States to work as a teacher. In 1967 he served as an aid worker in
Thailand as part of his national service, but was quickly expelled from the country for protesting against child prostitution and sent to
Mexico to finish his national service. From 1970 to 1974, he lived with the
Embera-Wounaan tribe in
Panama. He has been married since 1975 to Jémia Jean, who is Moroccan, and has three daughters (one by his first marriage with Rosalie Piquemal). Since the 1990s they have divided their residence between
Albuquerque, Mauritius, and Nice.[11]
In 1983 Le Clézio wrote a doctoral thesis on colonial Mexican history for the
University of Perpignan, on the conquest of the
Purépecha people who inhabit the present-day state of
Michoacán. It was serialized in a French magazine and published in Spanish in 1985.[12]
Le Clézio has taught at a number of universities around the world. A frequent visitor to
South Korea, he taught French language and literature at
Ewha Womans University in
Seoul during the 2007 academic year.[13][14] In November 2013, Le Clézio joined Nanjing University in China as a professor.[15]
Literary career
LE Clézio began writing at the age of seven; his first work was a book about the sea. He achieved success at the age of 23, when his first novel, Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation), was the
Prix Renaudot and was shortlisted for the
Prix Goncourt.[6] Since then he has published more than thirty-six books, including short stories, novels, essays, two translations on the subject of
Native American mythology, and several children's books.
From 1963 to 1975, Le Clézio explored themes such as
insanity,
language, nature, and writing. He devoted himself to formal experimentation in the wake of such contemporaries as
Georges Perec or
Michel Butor. His persona was that of an
innovator and a rebel, for which he was praised by
Michel Foucault and
Gilles Deleuze.
During the late 1970s, Le Clézio's style changed drastically; he abandoned experimentation, and the mood of his novels became less tormented as he used themes like
childhood, adolescence, and travelling, which attracted a broader audience. In 1980, Le Clézio was the first winner of the newly created Grand Prix
Paul Morand, awarded by the
Académie Française, for his novel Désert.[16] In 1994, a survey conducted by the French literary magazine Lire showed that 13 per cent of the readers considered him to be the greatest living French-language writer.[17]
The
Nobel Prize in Literature for 2008 went to Le Clézio for works characterized by the
Swedish Academy as being "poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy" and for being focused on the environment, especially the desert.[1] The
Swedish Academy, in announcing the award, called Le Clézio an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."[18] Le Clézio used his Nobel prize acceptance lecture to attack the subject of information poverty.[19] The title of his lecture was Dans la forêt des paradoxes ("In the forest of paradoxes"), a title he attributed to
Stig Dagerman.[20]
Gao Xingjian, a Chinese émigré writing in
Mandarin, was the previous French citizen to receive the prize (for 2000); Le Clézio was the first French-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature since
Claude Simon for 1985, and the fourteenth since
Sully Prudhomme, laureate of the first prize of 1901.
Controversy
Le Clézio is a staunch defender of Mama Rosa, director of a Mexican shelter raided by the police in July 2014 when children were found eating rotten food and kept against the will of their parents. He wrote an article in Le Monde arguing that she is close to sanctity.[21]
Bibliography
Novels
Le Procès-verbal (1963). The Interrogation, trans. Daphne Woodward (1964).
Le Déluge (1966). The Flood, trans. Peter Green (1967).
Terra Amata (1967). Terra Amata, trans. Barbara Bray (1967).
Le Livre des fuites (1969). The Book of Flights, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1971).
La Guerre (1970). War, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1973).
Les Géants (1973). The Giants, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1975).
^
Tahourdin, Adrian (21 April 2006).
"A Frenchman and a Geographer". 5th paragraph. London: review is taken from the TLS. Retrieved 9 December 2008. "Le Clézio's family were originally from Morbihan on the west coast of Brittany. At the time of the Revolution, one of his ancestors, who had refused to enlist in the Revolutionary Army because they had insisted he cut his long hair, fled France intending to reach India, but disembarked on Mauritius, and stayed there
^"Internet might have stopped Hitler". comcast.net. 7 December 2008. Archived from
the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 12 December 2008. Though he was born in France, Le Clézio's father is British and he holds dual nationality with Mauritius, where his family has roots
^"A Frenchman and a geographer". Adrian Tahourdin. London: The Times Literary Supplement. 21 April 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2008. "Le Clezio regards himself as Franco-Mauritian
^
ab
Bremner, Charles (9 October 2008).
"Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio wins the 2008 Nobel Literature Prize". Times Online. London. Retrieved 9 October 2008. Le Clézio, who was born in Nice and has lived in England, New Mexico and South Korea, said that he was touched by the honour. He mentioned his British father, a surgeon, and his childhood in Mauritius and Nigeria. "I was born of a mix, like many people currently in Europe," he said.
^Tahourdin, Adrian (21 April 2006).
"A Frenchman and a geographer". 5th paragraph. London: review is taken from the TLS. Retrieved 9 December 2008. "Le Clezio received the Academie Francaise's Grand Prix Paul Morand in 1980 for Desert, a novel that revealed a move towards a more expansive and lyrical style. The book has a dual narrative. The first, dated 1909–10, chronicles the tragic fate of a Tuareg clan fleeing across Morocco from their French and Spanish colonial oppressors ("les chrétiens")".
^The Nobel Foundation 2008 (7 December 2008).
"The Nobel Foundation 2008". Nobel Lecture. The Nobel Foundation 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
^"Prix Valery Larbaud". Prix littéraires. 2009. Archived from
the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2009. Pour l'ensemble de son oeuvre
^"Prix Jean Giono" (in French). Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent. 2009. Archived from
the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
"Grand Prix Jean Giono". Prix littéraires. 2009. Archived from
the original on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
^pour l'ensemble de son œuvre, à l'occasion de la sortie de Poisson d'or 2008
^"Ritournelle de la faim – Jean-Marie-Gustave Le Clézio". Ses Prix et Récompenses (in French). ciao.fr. 2008. Retrieved 16 February 2009. pour l'ensemble de son œuvre, à l'occasion de la sortie suédoise de Raga. Approche du continent invisible
^"Simone Veil, Zidane et Lagardère décorés". C.M. (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP (in French). lefigaro.fr. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2009. Le Clézio est pour sa part élevé au grade d'officier