Édouard Louis

Édouard Louis

Édouard Louis at Columbia University, 2014
Born Eddy Bellegueule
October 10, 1992
Picardie, France
Occupation Writer
Language French
Genre Novel, drama; Non-Fiction, Sociology

Édouard Louis (born Eddy Bellegueule;[1] October 30, 1992)[2] is a French writer.

Biography

Édouard Louis, born Eddy Bellegueule[1] was born and raised in the North of France, which is the setting of his first novel En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule.

Louis grew-up in a poor family supported by government welfare: his father was an unemployed factory worker and his mother found occasional work bathing the elderly.[3] The poverty, racism and alcoholism which confronted him during his childhood and which were prevalent in his social class would become the subject of his literary work.[4]

He is the first in his family to attend university, and in 2011 he was admitted to École Normale Supérieure in Paris.[5] In 2013, he officially changed his name to Édouard Louis.[6]

The same year, he edited the collective work, Pierre Bourdieu. L'insoumission en héritage, published by Presses Universitaires de France, which analyses the influence of Pierre Bourdieu on critical thinking and political emancipation.[7] It was with this same publisher that he created "Des Mots", a series of texts on the humanities and social sciences, the first of which featured essays from Georges Didi-Huberman and Didier Eribon.[8]

In January, 2014, at the age of 21, he published En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, an autobiographical novel. The book was the subject of extensive media attention and was hailed for its literary merit and compelling story.[9] Le Figaro wrote of the book: "It happens as often as Halley's comet passes through our sky, a book so unusual, that its very existence is such a miracle, that words fail".[10][11]

The book also gave rise to debate and controversy over the perception of the working class.[12] It was an instant bestseller in France, shipping over 200,000 copies in the months following its release, and is currently being translated to over 20 languages.[13][14] Didier Eribon spoke of the "enormous feat" of the book and Le Monde and Les Inrocks praised Louis as "a great writer, who calls to mind Thomas Bernhard," while Xavier Dolan points out "the unmistakable authenticity of the dialogues, as if Edward Louis has been writing forever."[15]

Style and influences

The work of Édouard Louis maintains a fine link with sociology: the presence of Pierre Bourdieu pervades En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, which invokes the themes of social exclusion, domination, and poverty. The influence of William Faulkner is also revealed; Louis' style is characterized by the superposition in the same sentence of various levels of language – placing the popular vernacular at the heart of his writing. The author says that by working languages, he wants to use violence as a literary subject, "I want to make violence a literary space, like Marguerite Duras made a literary space of madness or as Claude Simon made war into a literary space."[16]

The greatest contemporary influence on Louis comes from French sociologist Didier Eribon, whose book "Returning to Reims" Louis says, "marked a turning point for his future as a writer."[17]

Works

Novels

Non-fiction

Awards

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Curtet-Poulner, Isabelle (February 15, 2014). "En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule: chronique de la haine populaire" [En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule: chronicle of the popular hate] (REVIEW) (in French). Marianne. Retrieved 13 July 2014. Louis signe un premier roman époustouflant, En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, son patronyme originel.
  2. ↑ Notice autorité BnF
  3. ↑ Pascaud, Fabienne (January 25, 2014). "En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule" (REVIEW) (in French). Telerama. Retrieved 13 July 2014. le père est depuis longtemps au chômage après s'être bousillé le dos à l'usine, et où la mère nettoie les vieillards du village.
  4. ↑ Fruchon-Toussaint, Catherine (March 13, 2014). "Edouard Louis, phénomène littéraire à 21 ans" [Édouard Louis, Literary Phenomenon at 21] (RADIO TRANSCRIPT) (in French). Radio France Internationale. Retrieved 13 July 2014. Vous y racontez vos jeunes années, de 9 à 13 ans essentiellement, dans le nord de la France, où vous êtes né et vous avez été élevé dans une famille souffrant d’une grande misère, avec au quotidien l’alcoolisme, la pauvreté, le chômage, le désert culturel.
  5. ↑ Procès verbal des résultats d'admission PDF
  6. ↑ Biography in Le Monde des Livres
  7. ↑ Présentation de l'ouvrage sur le Site de l'éditeur.
  8. ↑ Najibi, Halima (April 8, 2014). "Eddy Bellegueule va aux PUF avec " des mots"" [Eddy Bellegueule goes to PUF with "des mots"] (REVIEW) (in French). France3. Retrieved 13 July 2014. lEdouard Louis, originaire de Picardie et auteur d'En Finir avec Eddy Bellegueule s'apprête à piloter une collection qu Presses Universitaires de France.
  9. ↑ For example in L'Express, Marianne, Télérama, on France Culture, France 2 (from 39'), etc.
  10. ↑ Lacoche, Philippe (February 2, 2014). "Les deux visages d'Eddy Bellegueule" [The two faces of Eddy Bellegueule] (ARTICLE) (in French). Courrier Picard. Retrieved 13 July 2014. lUne « comète de Halley, hors du commun », s’envole Madame Figaro.
  11. ↑ "About the Author". Seuil (in French). Le Seuil. Retrieved 15 July 2014. Il arrive, aussi souvent que la comète de Halley passe dans notre ciel, qu'un livre soit tellement hors du commun, que son existence même tienne d'un tel miracle, que les mots font défaut.
  12. ↑ Philippe, Elizabeth (March 15, 2014). "Edouard Louis: "Ce que j’écris dans ‘Eddy Bellegueule’ a été vécu"" [Edouard Louis: "What I wrote in 'Eddy Bellegueule' has been lived"] (INTERVIEW) (in French). Les Inrocks. Retrieved 13 July 2014. lLe journaliste se permet des choses à l’égard des classes populaires qu’il ne se serait pas permis à l’égard des dominants. C’est l’expression d’un racisme de classe insupportable.
  13. ↑ Abescat, Michel (July 15, 2014). "Edouard Louis : "J'ai pris de plein fouet la haine du transfuge de classe"" [Edouard Louis:"I've been slammed by the hatred of those who change social classes] (INTERVIEW) (in French). Telerama. Retrieved 15 July 2014. Héritier du sociologue Pierre Bourdieu, sur l'oeuvre duquel il a dirigé un ouvrage collectif, infiniment sensible, et sincère, il porte un regard aigu sur la réception de son livre.
  14. ↑ Swanson, Claire (February 21, 2014). "New Releases on Top in January" (NEWS). Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 13 July 2014. lA handful of new titles topped the bestseller lists in the international markets at the start of 2014. In France, 21-year-old Edouard Louis’s debut novel, Finishing Off Eddy Bellegueule, came in at #1.
  15. ↑ Bonnaud, Frédéric (May 7, 2014). "L’édito de Frédéric Bonnaud: Xavier Dolan et Edouard Louis, la possibilité d’une fuite" [The Editorial of Frederic Bonnaud: Xavier Dolan and Edouard Louis, the possibility of flight] (INTERVIEW) (in French). Les Inrocks. Retrieved 13 July 2014. qui possède une oreille littéraire digne d’un Thomas Bernhard.
  16. ↑ Des Lys, Richard (April 29, 2014). "Édouard Louis : le choc littéraire" [Édouard Louis: The Literary Shock] (INTERVIEW) (in French). Etre. Retrieved 13 July 2014. "La violence a été le projet fondateur de mon livre. Je voulais faire de la violence un espace littéraire, comme Duras a fait avec la passion, la folie. Ou comme Claude Simon a fait pour la guerre. Ou Hervé Guibert, pour la maladie. C’est une violence qui la plupart du temps ne se voit pas. Justement, la puissance de la littérature pour moi, c’est montrer avec les mots l’invisible. ".
  17. ↑ Petrowski, Nathalie (May 28, 2014). "Édouard Louis: famille, je vous hais" [Family: I hate you] (INTERVIEW) (in French). La Presse. Retrieved 14 July 2014. Le premier livre qui marquera un tournant pour le futur écrivain paraît en 2009. C'est Retour de Reims de Didier Eribon.

External links