J. M. G. Le Clézio Explained

J. M. G. Le Clézio
Birth Name:	Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
Birth Date:	1940 4, df=yes
Birth Place:	Nice, France
Occupation:	Writer
Period:	1963–present

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (pronounced as /fr/; 13 April 1940), usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, of French and Mauritian nationality, is a writer and professor. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel French: [[Le Procès-Verbal]] and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature for his life's work, as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".

Biography

Le Clézio's mother was born in the French Riviera city of Nice, his father on the island of Mauritius (which was a British possession, but his father was ethnically Breton, in France). Both his father's and his mother's ancestors were originally from Morbihan, on the south coast of Brittany.^[1] His paternal ancestor François Alexis Le Clézio fled France in 1798 and settled with his wife and daughter on Mauritius, which was then a French colony but would soon pass into British hands. The colonists were allowed to maintain their customs and use the French language. Le Clézio has never lived in Mauritius for more than a few months at a time, but he has stated that he regards himself both as a Frenchman and a Mauritian.^{[2] [3]} He has dual French and Mauritian citizenship (Mauritius gained independence in 1968) and calls Mauritius his "little fatherland".^{[4] [5]}

Le Clézio was born in Nice, his mother's native city, during World War II when his father was serving in the British Army in Nigeria.^[6] He was raised in Roquebillière, a small village near Nice until 1948 when he, his mother, and his brother boarded a ship to join his father in Nigeria. His 1991 novel Onitsha is partly autobiographical. In a 2004 essay, he reminisced about his childhood in Nigeria and his relationship with his parents.

After studying at the University of Bristol in England from 1958 to 1959,^[7] Le Clézio finished his undergraduate degree at Nice's Institut d'études littéraires.^[8] In 1964 Le Clézio earned a master's degree from the University of Provence with a thesis on Henri Michaux and the mystical experience.^[9]

After several years spent in London and Bristol, Le Clézio moved to the United States to work as a teacher. In 1967 he served as an aid worker in Thailand as part of his national service, but was quickly expelled from the country for protesting against child prostitution and sent to Mexico to finish his national service. From 1970 to 1974, he lived with the Embera-Wounaan tribe in Panama. He has been married since 1975 to Jémia Jean, who is Moroccan, and has three daughters (one by his first marriage with Rosalie Piquemal). Since the 1990s they have divided their residence between Albuquerque, Mauritius, and Nice.^[10]

In 1983 Le Clézio wrote a doctoral thesis on colonial Mexican history for the University of Perpignan, on the conquest of the Purépecha people who inhabit the present-day state of Michoacán. It was serialized in a French magazine and published in Spanish in 1985.^[11]

Le Clézio has taught at a number of universities around the world. A frequent visitor to South Korea, he taught French language and literature at Ewha Womans University in Seoul during the 2007 academic year.^{[12] [13]} In November 2013, Le Clézio joined Nanjing University in China as a professor.^[14]

Literary career

LE Clézio began writing at the age of seven; his first work was a book about the sea. He achieved success at the age of 23, when his first novel, Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation), was the Prix Renaudot and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt. Since then he has published more than thirty-six books, including short stories, novels, essays, two translations on the subject of Native American mythology, and several children's books.

From 1963 to 1975, Le Clézio explored themes such as insanity, language, nature, and writing. He devoted himself to formal experimentation in the wake of such contemporaries as Georges Perec or Michel Butor. His persona was that of an innovator and a rebel, for which he was praised by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze.

During the late 1970s, Le Clézio's style changed drastically; he abandoned experimentation, and the mood of his novels became less tormented as he used themes like childhood, adolescence, and travelling, which attracted a broader audience. In 1980, Le Clézio was the first winner of the newly created Grand Prix Paul Morand, awarded by the Académie Française, for his novel Désert.^[15] In 1994, a survey conducted by the French literary magazine Lire showed that 13 per cent of the readers considered him to be the greatest living French-language writer.^[16]

Nobel Prize

See main article: 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2008 went to Le Clézio for works characterized by the Swedish Academy as being "poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy" and for being focused on the environment, especially the desert.^[17] The Swedish Academy, in announcing the award, called Le Clézio an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."^[18] Le Clézio used his Nobel prize acceptance lecture to attack the subject of information poverty.^[19] The title of his lecture was Dans la forêt des paradoxes ("In the forest of paradoxes"), a title he attributed to Stig Dagerman.^[20]

Gao Xingjian, a Chinese émigré writing in Mandarin, was the previous French citizen to receive the prize (for 2000); Le Clézio was the first French-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature since Claude Simon for 1985, and the fourteenth since Sully Prudhomme, laureate of the first prize of 1901.

Controversy

Le Clézio is a staunch defender of Mama Rosa, director of a Mexican shelter raided by the police in July 2014 when children were found eating rotten food and kept against the will of their parents. He wrote an article in Le Monde arguing that she is close to sanctity.^[21]

Bibliography

Novels

• Le Procès-verbal (1963). The Interrogation, trans. Daphne Woodward (1964).
• Le Déluge (1966). The Flood, trans. Peter Green (1967).
• Terra Amata (1967). Terra Amata, trans. Barbara Bray (1967).
• Le Livre des fuites (1969). The Book of Flights, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1971).
• La Guerre (1970). War, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1973).
• Les Géants (1973). The Giants, trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1975).
• Voyages de l'autre côté (1975).
• Désert (1980). Desert, trans. C. Dickson (2009).
• Le Chercheur d'or (1985). The Prospector, trans. Carol Marks (1993); C. Dickson (2016).
• Onitsha (1991). Onitsha, trans. Alison Anderson (1997).
• Étoile errante (1992). Wandering Star, trans. C. Dickson (2005).
• La Quarantaine (1995).
• Poisson d'or (1997).
• Révolutions (2003).
• Ourania (2006).
• Ritournelle de la faim (2008).
• Alma (2017).

Short stories and novellas

• Le Jour où Beaumont fit connaissance avec sa douleur (1964). The Day Beaumont Became Acquainted with His Pain.
• La Fièvre (1965). Fever, trans. Daphne Woodward (1966)
• Mondo et autres histoires (1978). Mondo and Other Stories, trans. Alison Anderson (2011).
• La Ronde et autres faits divers (1982). The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts, trans. C. Dickson (2002).
• Printemps et autres saisons (1989)
• Awaité Pawana (1992). Pawana, trans. Christophe Brunski (2008).^[22]
• La Fête chantée et autres essais de thème amérindien (1997)
• Hasard suivi d'Angoli Mala (1999)
• Cœur brûle et autres romances (2000)
• Fantômes dans la rue (2000). Ghosts in the Street.
• Tabataba suivi de Pawana (2002)
• Histoire du pied et autres fantaisies (2011)
• Tempête : deux novellas (2014). Storm.
• Chanson bretonne, suivi de L'Enfant et la Guerre (2020)
• Avers (2023)

Non-fiction

• Le Rêve mexicain ou La Pensée interrompue (1965). The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations, trans. Teresa Lavender Fagan (1993).
• "Sur la lecture comme le vrai voyage" (1965). "On Reading as True Travel", trans. Julia Abramson.^[23]
• "La Liberté pour rêver" (1965). "Freedom to Dream", trans. Ralph Schoolcraft.^[24]
• "La Liberté pour parler" (1965). "Freedom to Speak", trans. Le Clézio.^[25]
• L'extase matérielle (1967). Material Ecstasy.
• Conversations avec J. M. G. Le Clézio (1971)
• Haï (1971)
• Mydriase (1973). Mydriasis, trans. Teresa Lavender Fagan, published in Mydriasis: Followed by “To the Icebergs” (2019).
• Vers les icebergs (1978). To the Icebergs, trans. Teresa Lavender Fagan, published in Mydriasis: Followed by “To the Icebergs” (2019).
• L'Inconnu sur la Terre (1978)
• Trois Villes saintes (1980)
• Une lettre de J. M. G. Le Clézio (1982)
• Sur Lautréamont (1987)
• Diego et Frida (1993)
• Ailleurs (1995)
• Dans la maison d'Edith (1997)
• Enfances (1998)
• L'Enfant de sous le pont (2000)
• L'Africain (2004). The African, trans. C. Dickson (2013).
• Ballaciner (2007)
• Chanson bretonne suivi de L'Enfant et la guerre (2020)
• Identité nomade (2024)

Travel diaries

• Voyage à Rodrigues
• Gens des nuages
• Raga. Approche du continent invisible

Collections translated by the author into French

• Les Prophéties du Chilam Balam
• Relation de Michoacan
• Sirandanes

Books for children

• Voyage au pays des arbres (1978)
• Lullaby (1980). From Mondo et autres histoires.
• Peuple du ciel, suivi de Les Bergers (1981). Both from Mondo et autres histoires.
• Celui qui n'avait jamais vu la mer, suivi de La Montagne du dieu vivant (1982). Both from Mondo et autres histoires.
• Villa Aurore, suivi de Orlamonde (1985)
• Balaabilou (1985). Extracts from Désert.
• La Grande Vie, suivi de Peuple du ciel (1990). "La Grande Vie" from La Ronde et autres faits divers.

Books written by other authors with preface written by Le Clézio

• The French-language preface to Juan Rulfo's short story collection Le Llano en Flammes
• Preface to French filmmaker Robert Bresson's "Notes Sur Le Cinématographe"

See also: J. M. G. Le Clézio bibliography.

Awards and honors

Awards

Year	Prize	Work
1963	prix Théophraste-Renaudot	Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation)
1972	prix littéraire Valery-Larbaud	For his complete works^[26]
1980	Grand prix de littérature Paul-Morand, awarded by the Académie française
1997	Jean Giono Prize^[27]	Poisson d'or
1998	prix Prince-de-Monaco	For his complete works and upon publication of Poisson d'or^[28]
2008	Stig Dagermanpriset^[29] ^[30]	for his complete works and upon publication of Swedish translation of a travelogue Raga. Approche du continent invisible^[31]
2008	Nobel Prize in Literature

Honours

• He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 25 October 1991^[32] and was promoted to Officier (Officer) in 2009^[33]
• In 1996, he was made Officier (Officer) of the Ordre national du Mérite.^[34]
• Lycée Français J. M. G. Le Clézio in Port Vila, Vanuatu is named after him.

Further reading

Critical works

• Jennifer R. Waelti-Walters, J.M.G. Le Clézio, Boston, Twayne, " Twayne's World Authors Series " 426, 1977.
• Jennifer R. Waelti-Walters, Icare ou l'évasion impossible, éditions Naaman, Sherbrooke, Canada, 1981.
• Bruno Thibault, Sophie Jollin-Bertocchi, J.M.G. Le Clézio: Intertextualité et interculturalité, Nantes, Editions du Temps, 2004.
• Bruno Thibault, Bénédicte Mauguière, J.M.G. Le Clézio, la francophonie et la question coloniale, Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, numéro 20, 2005.
• Keith Moser, "Privileged moments" in the novels and short stories of J.M.G. Le Clézio, Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.
• Bruno Thibault, Claude Cavallero (eds), Contes, nouvelles & Romances, Les Cahiers Le Clézio, vol. 2, Paris, 2009.
• Bruno Thibault, J.M.G. Le Clézio et la métaphore exotique, Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2009.
• Isabelle Roussel-Gillet, J.M.G. Le Clézio, écrivain de l'incertitude, Ellipses, 2011.
• Bruno Thibault, Isabelle Roussel-Gillet (eds), Migrations et métissages, Les Cahiers Le Clézio, vol. 3–4, 2011.
• Keith Moser, JMG Le Clézio, A Concerned Citizen of the Global Village, Lexington Books, 2012.
• Bruno Thibault, Keith Moser, J.M.G. Le Clézio dans la forêt des paradoxes, Paris, Editions de l'Harmattan, 2012.

External links

• • • Great interview with J. M. G. Le Clezio and all linked resources on the video encyclopedia SAM Network
  • Interview with Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, in Label France No. 45 (English)
• J.M.G Le Clézio —Photos by Mathieu Bourgois.
• J.M.G. Le Clézio, about his Breton origins.
• "Nobel Goes Global With Literary Prize", by Bob Thompson, Washington Post, 10 October 2008
• "A Nobel Undertaking: Getting to Know Le Clézio ", by Richard Woodward, Wall Street Journal, 30 October 2008
• "J. M. G. Le Clézio, Nobel laureate"

a collection of pieces on Clézio, from TLS, 9 October 2008

• A writing life in pictures: Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Le Clézio, The Guardian, 9 October 2008
• Artelittera Many chapters of studies about Le Clezio to upload
• J.M.G. Le Clézio: A French NovelistWins 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature
• David R. Godine, Publisher
  • List of Works

Notes and References

1. News: A Frenchman and a Geographer . 9 December 2008 . 5th paragraph. review is taken from the TLS . 21 April 2006. "Le Clézio's family were originally from Morbihan on the west coast of Brittany. At the time of the Revolution, one of his ancestors, who had refused to enlist in the Revolutionary Army because they had insisted he cut his long hair, fled France intending to reach India, but disembarked on Mauritius, and stayed there . London. Adrian. Tahourdin.
2. Web site: Internet might have stopped Hitler . 12 December 2008 . comcast.net . 7 December 2008 . "Though he was born in France, Le Clézio's father is British and he holds dual nationality with Mauritius, where his family has roots" . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081209075618/http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-entertainment/20081207/EU.Sweden.Nobel.Le.Clezio/ . 9 December 2008 .
3. News: A Frenchman and a geographer . 11 December 2008 . Adrian Tahourdin. The Times Literary Supplement . 21 April 2006. "Le Clezio regards himself as Franco-Mauritian . London.
4. News: Nobel award restores French literary pride . . Angelique Chrisafis . 10 October 2008 . "He has joint Mauritian citizenship and calls the island his "little fatherland" . London.
5. News: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio wins the 2008 Nobel Literature Prize . Times Online . 9 October 2008 . 2008-10-09 . Le Clézio, who was born in Nice and has lived in England, New Mexico and South Korea, said that he was touched by the honour. He mentioned his British father, a surgeon, and his childhood in Mauritius and Nigeria. "I was born of a mix, like many people currently in Europe," he said. . London. Charles. Bremner.
6. Book: della Fazia Amoia , Alba . Multicultural Writers Since 1945 . Alba Amoia . Bettina Liebowitz . 2009 . Greenwood Publishing Group . Westport, Connecticut . 978-0-313-30688-4 . 313–318 .
7. Web site: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio wins Nobel Prize . University of Bristol . 10 October 2008 . 2008-11-07 .
8. http://www.mba-unice.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=70 MBA-unice.edu
9. Marshall, Bill; Cristina Johnston. France and the Americas. ABC-CLIO, 2005. . p.697
10. News: Pollard . Niklas . Estelle Shirbon . Nomadic writer wins Nobel prize. International Herald Tribune . 9 October 2008 . 2008-10-09 .
11. Le Clézio, La Conquista divina de Michoacán. Fondo de Cultura Económica
12. News: Acclaimed French author praises Korean literature . . 2 January 2008 . Lee Esther .
13. News: http://www.donga.com/fbin/output?f=total&n=200810090575 . ko:한국과 각별한 인연 가진 르클레지오 . . ko . Yonhap News . 9 October 2008 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081211165923/http://www.donga.com/fbin/output?f=total&n=200810090575 . 11 December 2008 . dmy-all . Yonhap News .
14. Web site: Nobel Laureate Le Clézio Officially Joins Nanjing University . Nov 6, 2013 . 27 May 2019 . 2 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200802163611/https://www.nju.edu.cn/english/_t317/04/75/c99a1141/page.psp . dead .
15. News: A Frenchman and a geographer . 9 December 2008 . 5th paragraph. review is taken from the TLS . 21 April 2006. "Le Clezio received the Academie Francaise's Grand Prix Paul Morand in 1980 for Desert, a novel that revealed a move towards a more expansive and lyrical style. The book has a dual narrative. The first, dated 1909–10, chronicles the tragic fate of a Tuareg clan fleeing across Morocco from their French and Spanish colonial oppressors ("les chrétiens")". . London . Adrian . Tahourdin.
16. Web site: Maurice : Source d'Inspiration pour le Prix Nobel de Littérature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (Lire, "Le Clézio N° 1", 1994, 22s.) . 12 December 2008 . Portail Ocean Indie . modéré par CEDREFI . 14 October 2008 . fr . Prix du plus grand écrivain francophone du magazine Lire . bot: unknown . https://archive.today/20121104091801/http://www.mediaterre.org/ocean-indien/actu,20081014083035.html . 4 November 2012 .
17. Web site: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008 . 2008-10-09 . Nobelprize.org .
18. News: Thompson . Bob . France's Le Clézio Wins Nobel Literature Prize . The Washington Post . 9 October 2008 . 2008-10-09 .
19. News: Le Clézio uses Nobel lecture to attack information poverty . 14 December 2008 . guardian.co.uk home. 8 December 2008 . London . Richard . Lea.
20. Web site: The Nobel Foundation 2008 . 11 December 2008 . The Nobel Foundation 2008 . 7 December 2008 . Nobel Lecture . The Nobel Foundation 2008.
21. News: Foyer de l'horreur au Mexique : plaidoyer pour " Mama Rosa " par JMG Le Clézio . . 2014-07-24 . JMG Le Clézio .
22. Web site: 2008-10-12 . AGNI Online: Pawana by J. M. G. Le Clézio . 2023-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081012090741/http://www.bu.edu/agni/fiction/print/2001/53-clezio.html . 12 October 2008 .
23. Clezio . J M G Le . On reading as true travel . World Literature Today . 76 . 2 . Spring 2002 . 103–106 . 10.2307/40157273 . . 40157273 .
24. Le Clézio. J. M. G.. Schoolcraft. Ralph. 1997. Freedom to Dream . World Literature Today. 71. 4. 671–674. 10.2307/40153284. 40153284 .
25. Le Clézio. J. M. G.. 1997. Freedom to Speak . World Literature Today. 71. 4. 675–677. 10.2307/40153285. 40153285 .
26. Web site: 2009. Prix Valery Larbaud. 2009-02-16. Prix littéraires. Pour l'ensemble de son oeuvre. 4 March 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100304113049/http://www.prix-litteraires.net/prix/440,prix-valery-larbaud.html. dead.
27. Web site: 2009. Prix Jean Giono. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090105204458/http://www.fondation-pb-ysl.net/site/Litterature-200.html. 5 January 2009. 2009-02-16. Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent. fr. Web site: 2009. Grand Prix Jean Giono. 2009-02-16. Prix littéraires. 16 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160816155826/http://www.prix-litteraires.net/prix/117,grand-prix-jean-giono.html. dead.
28. pour l'ensemble de son œuvre, à l'occasion de la sortie de Poisson d'or 2008
29. News: 24 October 2008. Ljusgestalt i ondskans tid. 27 October 2012. SvD. sv. Jarlsbo. Jeana.
30. Web site: 4 June 2008. Fransman får Stig Dagermanpriset. 27 October 2012. gd.se. sv.
31. Web site: 2008. Ritournelle de la faim – Jean-Marie-Gustave Le Clézio. 2009-02-16. Ses Prix et Récompenses. ciao.fr. fr. pour l'ensemble de son œuvre, à l'occasion de la sortie suédoise de Raga. Approche du continent invisible.
32. 1 January 2009. Décret du 31 décembre 2008 portant promotion et nomination. JORF. 2009. 1. 15. PREX0828237D. 2009-04-05.
33. Web site: 1 January 2009. Simone Veil, Zidane et Lagardère décorés. 2009-04-14. C.M. (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP. lefigaro.fr. fr. Le Clézio est pour sa part élevé au grade d'officier.
34. 15 November 1996. Ordre national du Mérite Décret du 14 novembre 1996 portant promotion et. JORF. 1996. 266. 16667. PREX9612403D. 2009-04-05.