Virginie Despentes and Schmitt are entering the Goncourt jury – The World

Le Monde | 01/05/2016 at 16h58 • Updated 01/05/2016 at 5:09 p.m. | By Alain Beuve-Mery

A woman and a man are replaced by … a man and a woman. The Goncourt jury unanimously elected, Tuesday, January 5, at Drouant in Paris, two new academicians. The writer and playwright Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt succeeds Edmonde Charles-Roux, Dean of the Goncourt and its president from 2002 to 2014, 95 years old, who had asked to withdraw. The novelist Virginie Despentes takes “covered” by Régis Debray, who resigned in November 2015, arguing “work obligations” . At the Goncourt, the tradition is to talk about “covered”, there are ten (as in the French Academy discussed chair, forty in number).

Under the chairmanship of Bernard Pivot The Goncourt jury is again complete with three women – Françoise Chandernagore Paule Constant, Virginia Despentes – and seven men – Bernard Pivot, Didier Decoin, Secretary General, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Patrick Rambaud, Pierre Assouline, Philippe Claudel and Eric -Emmanuel Schmitt.

The Femina jury might take umbrage choosing Goncourt jury, because after the recruitment Paule Constant, in January 2013, is the second time that they dig the neighbor. Virginie Despentes has, indeed, been elected to the Femina jury in 2015 and will resign from one to reach the other because the accumulation is forbidden by the regulations of the two prices.

“reading bulimics The”

Virginie Despentes and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt have in common is that they have never been winners of the Prix Goncourt. They were chosen because they are “ read bulimic” said a juror. Virginie Despentes has, however, received the Prix Renaudot in 2010 for Baby Apocalypse (Grasset). Born in 1969, the novelist was known at the age of 24, with his first novel, Fuck me (1993), whose film adaptation was stirred controversy.

Since the launch in 2015 of his trilogy, Vernon Subutex , the first two volumes have been published, Virginia Despentes has returned success. Vernon Subutex is becoming a real bookstore phenomenon. A success both popular and critical. According to a Goncourt jury, Virginie Despentes was chosen as “is singular, very different from us” and that “she brings something new in literature” .

Aged 55, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt has the same university course as Regis Debray, and Associate Normale philosophy, but not the same career. He is a great writer of popular plays and novels. Since La Nuit de Valognes in 1991 The Fire Night (Albin Michel, 2015) is a prolific writer, author of some fifty books.

Although the Goncourt jury shout loudly that they stand apart from literary grub, they selected as jurors a new Grasset author and writer Michel Albin replacing an author and Grasset Gallimard author. This reflects a rebalancing of sensitivities in the most prestigious jury France. With the selection of new jurors, it is a more mainstream direction that, in a sense, the Goncourt.