Nobel-winning French writer praises her politics

On Thursday after she received the Nobel Prize in Literature, authors in the world praised Annie Ernaux'novels, but some in France have also praised her politics, especially for highlighting the struggles of the working class.

The philosopher and sociologist Didier Eribon was among them. Eribon said that Ernaux supported the Yellow Vest movement that brought French cities to a standstill starting in 2018, while protesting rising fuel prices and declining living standards. She supported workers who went on strike and highlighted their plight in her books. Eribon said she was a model and she gave others permission to write about class-based violence and trauma.

Eribon met Ernaux in 2002, shortly after the death of Pierre Bourdieu, a leading French sociologist and globalization critic. He said she had always been a great inspiration. When he was writing Returning to Reims, a memoir about growing up as a gay child of factory workers, Eribon said he had a pile of books by Annie Ernaux on his desk, and when I couldn't find a way to say something, I opened them.