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 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 other traditional non-French languages. Literature written in French by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, etc. is referred to as Francophone literature.

1 French literature
2 Literatures of other languages of France
3 French Nobel Prize in Literature winners
4 French literary awards
5 Selected list of French literary classics
6 Literary criticism
7 Poetry
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] French literature

The French language is a romance dialect derived from Vulgar 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 (for example: British and German Romanticism in the nineteenth century). French literary developments of the 19th and 20th centuries have had a particularly strong effect on modern world literature, including: symbolism, naturalism, the "roman-fleuves" of Balzac, Zola and Proust, surrealism, existentialism, and the "Theatre of the Absurd".

French imperialism and colonialism in the Americas, 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 (the most watched show in French history was Apostrophes, 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, although writers in English have won twice as many Nobels as the French.

[edit] Literatures of other languages of France

Besides literature written in the French language, the literary culture of France may include literature written in other languages of France. In the medieval period many of the competing standard languages in various territories that later came to make up the territory of modern France each produced literary traditions, such as Anglo-Norman literature and Provençal literature.

Literature in the regional languages continued through to the 18th century, although increasing eclipsed by the rise of the French language and influenced by the prevailing French literary model. Conscious language revival movements in the 19th century, such as Félibrige in Provence, coupled with wider literacy and regional presses, enabled a new flowering of literary production in the Norman language and others.

Frédéric Mistral, a poet in Occitan (1830-1914), was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904.

Breton literature since the 1920s has been lively, despite the falling number of speakers. In 1925, Roparz Hemon founded the periodical Gwalarn which for 19 years tried to raise the language to the level of other great "international" languages by creating original works covering all genres and by proposing Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946, Al Liamm took up the role of Gwalam. Other reviews came into existence and gave Breton a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. Among writers in Breton are Yann-Ber Kalloc'h, Anjela Duval and Per-Jakez Hélias.

Picard literature maintains a level of literary output, especially in theatrical writing. Walloon literature is bolstered by the more significant literary production in the language in Belgium.

Catalan literature and literature in the Basque language also benefit from the existence of a readership outside the borders of France.

[edit] French Nobel Prize in Literature winners

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)

[edit] French literary awards

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.