Annie Ernaux: explorar el potencial de l'escriptura

On 6 October 2022, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature to the French writer Annie Ernaux. Her work had begun to be systematically translated into Catalan three years earlier thanks to the efforts of Ángulo Editorial. Previously, however, Ernaux had already been read in Catalan by Libros del Índice, which had published Pura pasión in 1992. Therefore, she was no stranger to us at home when she received the prestigious award. It should be pointed out that her highly personal work, which she herself defines as ‘autosociobiographical’, is in keeping with not only the feminist demands that are on the rise in the 21st century, but also progressive and left-wing ones.

After organising an academic session to analyse the difficulties of translating Annie Ernaux at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting in 2023, and devoting an exhibition to her in the Magazine Room of the UAB Humanities Library in 2024 - for which the author herself lent us a personal object: a framed photograph of her parents - we thought it would be enriching for the new issue of the collection ‘12 Literatures’ to explore this female figure who has become practically an icon.

The title, Annie Ernaux: exploring the potential of writing, refers us to the particularity of this author, who develops a transcendental approach to literature and who, as a writer, is convinced that books contribute to changing the world.