French literature

This article is a general introduction to French literature. For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods, see the separate historical articles in the template to the right.

French and
Francophone literature

French literature
By category
French language

French literary history

Medieval
16th century • 17th century
18th century • 19th century
20th century • Contemporary

Francophone literature

Francophone literature
Literature of Quebec
Postcolonial literature
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French-language authors

Chronological list

French writers

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Genres

Science fiction • Comics
Fantastique

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Nouveau roman
Theatre of the Absurd

Criticism and awards

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Most visited

Molière • Racine • Balzac
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Zola • Proust
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Portals

France • French language
Literature • Francophone literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, etc. is referred to as Francophone literature. As of 2006, French writers have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country. France itself ranks first in the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country.

French literature has been for French people an object of national pride for centuries, and it has been one of the most influential components of the literature of Europe.^[1]^[2]

The French language is a Romance language derived from Latin and heavily influenced principally by Celtic and Frankish. Beginning in the 11th century, literature written in medieval French was one of the oldest vernacular (non-Latin) literatures in western Europe and it became a key source of literary themes in the Middle Ages across the continent.

Although the European prominence of French literature was eclipsed in part by vernacular literature in Italy in the 14th century, literature in France in the 16th century underwent a major creative evolution, and through the political and artistic programs of the Ancien Régime, French literature came to dominate European letters in the 17th century.

In the 18th century, French became the literary lingua franca and diplomatic language of western Europe (and, to a certain degree, in America), and French letters have had a profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time being heavily influenced by these other national traditions Africa, and the far East have brought the French language to non-European cultures that are transforming and adding to the French literary experience today.

Under the aristocratic ideals of the Ancien Régime (the "honnête homme"), the nationalist spirit of post-revolutionary France, and the mass educational ideals of the Third Republic and modern France, the French have come to have a profound cultural attachment to their literary heritage. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater and poetry (often learnt by heart). The literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary prizes are major news. The Académie française and the Institut de France are important linguistic and artistic institutions in France, and French television features shows on writers and poets (one of the most watched shows on French television was Apostrophes,^[3] a weekly talk show on literature and the arts). Literature matters deeply to the people of France and plays an important role in their sense of identity.

As of 2006, French literary people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than novelists, poets and essayists of any other country. (However, writers in English—USA, UK, India, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Saint Lucia—have won twice as many Nobels as the French.) In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he declined it, stating that "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form."^[4]

French Nobel Prize in Literature winners[edit]

Paul Verlaine (far left) and Arthur Rimbaud (second to left) in an 1872 painting by Henri Fantin-Latour.

Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France). Nobel Prize 1969.

Seminar with Claude Simon, Cerisy (France). Nobel Prize 1985.

French contemporary literature workshop with Marc Avelot, Philippe Binant, Bernard Magné, Claudette Oriol-Boyer, Jean Ricardou, Cerisy (France), 1980.

For most of the 20th century, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation.^[5] The following French or French language authors have won a Nobel Prize in Literature:

1901 – Sully Prudhomme (The first Nobel Prize in literature)
1904 – Frédéric Mistral (wrote in Occitan)
1911 – Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian)
1915 – Romain Rolland
1921 – Anatole France
1927 – Henri Bergson
1937 – Roger Martin du Gard
1947 – André Gide
1952 – François Mauriac
1957 – Albert Camus
1960 – Saint-John Perse
1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize)
1969 – Samuel Beckett (Irish, wrote in English and French)
1985 – Claude Simon
2000 – Gao Xingjian (writes in Chinese)
2008 – J. M. G. Le Clézio
2014 – Patrick Modiano

French literary awards[edit]

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière – created in 1948, for crime and detective fiction.
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française – created 1918.
Prix Décembre – created in 1989.
Prix Femina – created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women.
Prix Goncourt – created 1903, given to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year".
Prix Goncourt des Lycéens – created in 1987.
Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud – created in 1957.
Prix Médicis – created 1958, awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match their talent."
Prix Renaudot – created in 1926.
Prix Tour-Apollo Award – 1972–1990, given to the best science fiction novel published in French during the preceding year.
Prix des Deux Magots – created in 1933.