Annie Ernaux won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature for writing that uncovered the personal memory of estrangement and collective restraints.
The Swedish Academy described her work as courageous and clinically sharp, examining the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory. Her books frequently transform experiences such as class mobility, family relationships, sexuality and abortion into literary and social history.
Ernaux’s major works include The Years, A Woman’s Story, Happening and The Possession. Rather than presenting autobiography as purely private confession, she often connects individual memories to changes in French society.
Ernaux was the first French woman to win the literature Nobel. Her 2022 award followed the 2021 prize for Abdulrazak Gurnah and preceded the 2023 prize for Jon Fosse, making the year a useful point of comparison in recent Nobel history.