Didier Eribon Explained

Didier Eribon
Birth Date:	10 July 1953
Birth Place:	Reims, France
Occupation:	Writer
Language:	French
Genre:	Non-fiction, sociology, philosophy

Didier Eribon (born 10 July 1953) is a French author and philosopher, and a historian of French intellectual life. He lives in Paris.

Biography

Didier Eribon was born in Reims^[1] into a working-class family. He was the first in his family to finish secondary education. He credits his mother with helping him achieve this; a factory worker, she had to work overtime to be able to pay for his education.^[2]

Work

Didier Eribon is professor at the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the University of Amiens (France). He has been running a seminar at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris for several years. He has also been Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley for several years, and at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Eribon has lectured in several countries: in the U.S., at The New School, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, New York University (NYU), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and Columbia University^[3] among others. He was one of the speakers at the Conference "Foucault in Berkeley. Twenty Years Later", held in Berkeley October 2004, with Leo Bersani, Judith Butler, Paul Rabinow, Hubert Dreyfus, Michael Lucey, and others.

He is the author of several books, including his Réflexions sur la question gay (1999, Insult and the Making of the Gay Self), Une morale du minoritaire (2001), and Echapper à la psychanalyse (2005, Escaping Psychoanalysis). His biography of Michel Foucault (1989), published in English in 1991, has been praised by Pierre Bourdieu, Paul Veyne, Paul Rabinow and Hayden White, among others. His 1988 book of conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss was also published in English in 1991.

Eribon wrote frequently for Le Nouvel Observateur, a French weekly magazine. He reviewed books in the fields of philosophy and social sciences.

Autobiography

His 2009 memoir Returning to Reims has had an influence beyond the field of sociology.^[4] French novelist Édouard Louis cites the book as having "marked a turning point for his future as a writer."^[5]

Additionally, the book was adapted for the stage by Laurent Hatat, in a play that debuted at the Festival Avignon in July 2014.^[6] It was directed by Thomas Ostermeier as part of the 2017 Manchester International Festival.^[7] The book also received enthusiastic reviews in the French press, such as Le Monde, Libération, L'Express and Les Inrockuptibles.^[8]

A film adaptation by Jean-Gabriel Périot was released in 2021.^[9]

Prizes

Eribon is the recipient of the 2008 Brudner Prize.^[10] He returned the prize in May 2011 (see his letter: "I Return the Brudner Prize" on his personal homepage).

Personal life

Didier Eribon has been in a relationship with Geoffroy de Lagasnerie since 2001. Both are in a close relationship with Édouard Louis.

Bibliography

Monographs

• Michel Foucault, 1926–1984, Paris, Flammarion, 1989
  • Michel Foucault. Trans. Betsy Wing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1991.
• Faut-il brûler Dumézil : mythologie, science et politique, Paris, Flammarion, 1992.
• Michel Foucault et ses contemporains, Paris, Fayard, 1994
• Réflexions sur la question gay, Paris, Fayard, 1999.
  • English translation: Insult and the Making of the Gay Self. Translated by Michael Lucey. Duke University Press, 2004. 440 pages.
  • New edition, revised and augmented, Paris, Flammarion, coll. « Champs », 2012.
• Papiers d'identité : interventions sur la question gay, Paris, Fayard, 2000
• Une morale du minoritaire : variations sur un thème de Jean Genet, Paris, Fayard, 2001
• Hérésies : essais sur la théorie de la sexualité, Paris, Fayard, 2003
• Sur cet instant fragile… Carnets janvier-août 2004, Paris, Fayard, 2004
• Échapper à la psychanalyse, Paris, Éditions Léo Scheer, 2005
• D'une révolution conservatrice et de ses effets sur la gauche française, Paris, Éditions Léo Scheer, 2007.
• Contre l'égalité et autres chroniques, Les éditions Cartouche, 2008.
• Retour à Reims, Paris, Fayard, 2009.
• De la subversion : droit, norme et politique, Paris, Éditions Cartouche, 2010.
• Michel Foucault, 1926-1984, nouvelle édition, revue et augmentée, Paris, Flammarion, coll. « Champs : biographie », 2011.
• Retours sur Retour à Reims, Les éditions Cartouche, 2011.
• La société comme verdict : classes, identités, trajectoires, Paris, Fayard, 2013.
• Théories de la littérature : système du genre et verdicts sexuels, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2015.
• Principes d'une pensée critique, Paris, Fayard, 2016
• Écrits sur la psychanalyse, Paris, Fayard, 2019, 304 p.
• Vie, vieillesse et mort d'une femme du peuple, Paris, Flammarion, 2023, 250 p.

Interviews

• Entretiens avec Georges Dumézil, Paris, Gallimard, 1987 .
• De près et de loin : entretiens avec Claude Lévi-Strauss, Paris, Odile Jacob, 1988.
  • Conversations with Claude Lévi-Strauss, by Claude Lévi-Strauss and Didier Eribon, Translated by Paula Wissing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 192 pages.
• Ce que l'image nous dit : entretiens sur l'art et la science, avec Ernst Gombrich, Paris, Adam Biro, 1991. Réédition aux Éditions Cartouche, 2009.

External links

• • at Columbia Maison Française

Notes and References

1. Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. Authors Online
2. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/27/didier-eribon-interview-returning-to-reims-working-class-coming-out--memoir?CMP=share_btn_fb, Interview about the book
3. Web site: On Social Verdict: Classes, Identities, Trajectories by Didier Eribon. YouTube.
4. Web site: Welle (www.dw.com). Deutsche. 2017-10-11. A selection of France's best contemporary writers DW 11.10.2017. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011205311/http://www.dw.com/en/a-selection-of-frances-best-contemporary-writers/g-40904251 . 2017-10-11 . 2020-09-10. Deutsche Welle. en-GB. "Eribon was long one of France's most famous sociologists until his 2009 book, 'Return to Reims,' an exploration of his working class origins (and the homophobia he faced), also made him a literary heavyweight"
5. News: Nathalie Petrowski . Petrowski. Nathalie. May 28, 2014. Édouard Louis: famille, je vous hais. Family: I hate you. French. La Presse. 14 July 2014. Interview. "Le premier livre qui marquera un tournant pour le futur écrivain paraît en 2009. C'est Retour de Reims de Didier Eribon.".
6. http://www.festi.tv/Festival-Avignon-Off-2014-Rencontre-avec-Didier-Eribon-et-Laurent-Hatat_v883.html July 2014 - Interview with Didier Eribon and Laurent Hatat
7. Web site: Archived copy . 25 June 2017 . 2 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170702180643/http://mif.co.uk/mif17-events/returning-to-reims/ . dead .
8. Book: Returning to Reims. 9781584351238. Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents. 13 September 2013. Semiotext(e).
9. Web site: Retour à Reims (Fragments) / Returning to Reims (Fragments) . . 11 August 2023.
10. Web site: April 10, 2008 - Brudner Prize Winner Lecture at Yale Club NYC . 12 March 2008 . 18 May 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080518085858/http://www.yalegala.org/April102008BrudnerPrize.html . dead .