Joseph Andras

Last updated

Joseph Andras (born 1984) is a French writer [1] who lives in Le Havre. [2]

Contents

Biography

In 2016, Joseph Andras published his first novel, De nos frères blessés, dedicated to Fernand Iveton, a "pied-noir" worker and independentist. The book was acclaimed by critics and won the Goncourt Prize for first novel, which the author refused because he didn't approve the institutionalization of writing and the idea of "competition". [3] In May 2017, he released the record-book S'il n'restait qu'un chien, a long poem in free verse about the port of Le Havre.

At the beginning of 2018, he spent nearly two months in Chiapas, staying in one of the five centers of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and in an indigenous community as part of a Civil Observation Brigade. In September 2018, he published Kanaky. In the Footsteps of Alphonse Dianou, a biographical investigation carried out between 2015 and 2018 in New Caledonia and metropolitan France. The investigation focuses on a socialist, pro-independence activist involved in the FLNKS and killed in 1988 after the assault on the Ouvéa cave. As part of this research, he stayed with the tribe of Gossanah.

On November 20, 2019, he published in L'Humanité an open letter to Manuel T., a "yellow vest" from the North who had been dazed by a grenade attack four days earlier. The same year, he participated in the launch of the international Free Nûdem Durak campaign.

The Prix Goncourt, first novel, 2016

Initially not included in the list of the prix Goncourt du premier roman 2016, Joseph Andras was finally the winner, on May 9, 2016, with five votes, with four going to Catherine Poulain for Le Grand Marin and one going to Loulou Robert for Bianca, [4] [5] [6] that is - and exceptional fact - two days before its release in bookstores. [Note 1] It is the second Goncourt du premier roman consecutive novel for the editions Actes Sud, what is more about the theme of the Algerian war, after The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud rewarded the previous year. [5]

The week before the official announcement of the results, Andras let it be known, by his publisher and at the private request of the Académie Goncourt, that he refused to go to Paris, thereby signifying his refusal to participate in the selection. Despite this, the Academy awarded him the prize. [2] – Joseph Andras sent a letter to the Académie Goncourt to decline the prize and his endowment, justifying his decision by declaring that "competition, and rivalry were in his eyes notions foreign to writing and creation." [3] This relatively unusual move, [Note 2] led some media to think that he could be an already famous novelist, on the Gary/Ajar model. [3] [7] [8] As a result of these interrogations, Joseph Andras gave interviews to L'Humanité and to the literary supplement of the Beirut daily L'Orient-Le Jour in which he explained his motivations and his work as a novelist to salute the memory of Fernand Iveton and, again, the reasons for his refusal of the prize: "I could not accept it for the sake of consistency, to help "Institutionalize" this narrative and the ideals worn by the characters. [...] I live in Normandy, quietly, I do not know the literary and Parisian environment, do not want to know more and want more than anything to concentrate on my next texts." [9] [10] [11]

Only one photo of him is known. He indicates that he voluntarily keeps away from the mainstream media, preferring to devote himself to literature.

Work

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prix Goncourt</span> French literary award

The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author. Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes include the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romain Gary</span> French writer and diplomat (1914-1980)

Romain Gary, born Roman Kacew, was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names. He is considered a major writer of French literature of the second half of the 20th century. He was married to Lesley Blanch, then Jean Seberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amin Maalouf</span> Lebanese-born French author (born 1949)

Amin Maalouf is a Lebanese-born French author who has lived in France since 1976. Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into over 40 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prix Renaudot</span> French literary award

The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot is a French literary award.

Emmanuel Roblès was a French author and playwright. He was elected a member of the Académie Goncourt in 1973. He was one of many influential "pied-noir" of his time. The literary award Prix Emmanuel Roblès has been established in his honour in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boualem Sansal</span> Algerian author (born 1949)

Boualem Sansal is an Algerian author. In 2012, he was named winner of the Prix du roman arabe, but the prize money was withdrawn due to Sansal's visit to Israel to speak at the Jerusalem Writers Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernand Iveton</span> Algerian terrorist

Fernand Iveton was the only pied noir among the 198 supporters of the FLN who were executed during the Algerian War.

Abdelkader Guerroudj was an Algerian man who was condemned to death in December 1957 along with his French wife, Jacqueline Guerroudj. They were convicted as accomplices of Fernand Iveton, the only European who was guillotined for his part in the Algerian revolt. As a result of a high-profile campaign in France, where the issue was called L'Affaire Guerroudj, neither was executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Laurens (scholar)</span> French historian and author

Henry Laurens is a French historian and author of several histories and studies about the Arab-Muslim world. He is Professor and Chair of History of the Contemporary Arab world at the Collège de France, Paris.

Éditions Grasset is a French publishing house founded in 1907 by Bernard Grasset (1881–1955). Grasset publishes French and foreign literature, essays, novels and children's books, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Grainville</span> French novelist

Patrick Grainville is a French novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Vercel</span> French writer (1894–1957)

Roger Vercel was a French writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathias Énard</span> French novelist born 1972

Mathias Énard is a French novelist. He studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several awards for Zone, including the Prix du Livre Inter and the Prix Décembre, and won the Prix Goncourt/Le Choix de l’Orient, the Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée, and the Prix du Roman-News for Rue des Voleurs. He won the 2015 Prix Goncourt for Boussole (Compass). In 2020 he was Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature at the University of Bern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamel Daoud</span> Algerian writer and journalist

Kamel Daoud is an Algerian writer and journalist. He currently edits the French-language daily Le quotidien d’Oran, for which he writes a popular column, "Raïna Raïkoum". The column often includes commentary on the news.

Maurizio Serra is a contemporary Italian writer and diplomat. Maurizio Serra was Italian Ambassador to the Unesco. He writes in Italian and French. He received the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie in 2011 for his book Malaparte, vies et légendes, a biography on Curzio Malaparte. Serra was elected to the Académie Française on 9 January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Kempf</span>

Roger Kempf was a French writer, philosopher, Germanist and ethnologist of literature, and emeritus professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Zurich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Chambaz</span> French writer, historian and poet

Bernard Chambaz is a French writer, historian and poet, winner of several French literary prizes.

Salim Bachi is an Algerian novelist who grew up in Annaba, eastern Algeria. After a one-year stay in Paris in 1995, he returned there in 1997 to study literature. A pensioner at the French Academy in Rome in 2005, he now lives and works in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Caffier</span> French journalist, writer, and literary critic (1930–2021)

Michel Caffier was a French journalist, writer, and literary critic. He is the author of an abundant work centered on Lorraine: historical novels, essays and reference works, including the Dictionnaire des littératures de Lorraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaouther Adimi</span> Algerian writer

Kaouther Adimi, is a writer, graduate in modern literature and human resources management. She works today in Paris, where she has lived since 2009.

References

  1. ↑ Notice BnF.
  2. 1 2 "Joseph Andras : « Je place la poésie au-dessus de tout » - the Dissident - the Dissident". Archived from the original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Quand l’affaire Iveton devient l’affaire Andras by Pierre Assouline on the site La République des livres 13 May 2016.
  4. ↑ Goncourt du premier roman à Joseph Andras in Le Figaro 9 May 2016.
  5. 1 2 Joseph Andras remporte le Goncourt du premier roman 2016 sur www.livreshebdo.fr le 9 mai 2016.
  6. ↑ "De nos frères blessés" n'était pas dans la liste des finalistes. Il a gagné quand même. on the site of the Nouvel Obs 9 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Joseph Andras existe, je l'ai rencontré !" by Valérie Marin la Meslée in Le Point 12 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Joseph Andras refuse le prix Goncourt du Premier roman in Le Nouvel Obs 13 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Joseph Andras : Un boulanger fait du pain, un écrivain écrit  interview realised by Lionel Decottigniesfor L'Humanité 24 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Joseph Andras : un premier roman qui dit non http://www.lorientlitteraire.com/article_details.php?cid=31&nid=6530 interview realised by William Irigoyen for L'Orient Littéraire June 2016.
  11. ↑ Joseph Andras: Je ne voulais pas laisser Iveton aux mains de ses bourreaux interview realised by Antoine Perraud on Mediapart 1 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Jean-Luc Einaudi, Pour l’exemple, l’affaire Fernand Iveton, éditions L'Harmattan, series "Histoire et perspectives méditerranéennes", 1986, ISBN   978-2-85802-721-7.

Notes

  1. ↑ However, the novel was available as an electronic book on some sales sites since May 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ Since 1951 with Julien Gracq who refused the prix Goncourt for Le Rivage des Syrtes , no author ever declined an award from the Académie Goncourt, with the exception of the Émile Ajar/Romain Gary case for La Vie devant soi (1975) which revealed the dual identity and mystification of the same writer a few years later.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.