Nathalie Sarraute
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Nathalie Sarraute (; born Natalia Ilinichna Tcherniak (); – 19 October 1999) was a French writer and lawyer. She was nominated in 1969 for the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
by Nobel Committee member Lars Gyllensten.


Personal life

Sarraute was born in Ivanovo-Voznesensk (now
Ivanovo Ivanovo (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia and the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Russia, Vladimir and Kostroma. ...
), 300 km north-east of
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. She was the daughter of Pauline (née Chatounovsky), a writer, and Ilya Tcherniak, a chemist. She was of Jewish origin. Following the divorce of her parents, she spent her childhood shuttled between France and Russia. In 1909 she moved to Paris with her father. Sarraute studied law and literature at the prestigious Sorbonne, having a particular fondness for contemporary literature and the works of
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...
and
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...
, who greatly affected her conception of the novel, then later studied history at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
and sociology in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, before passing the French bar exam (1926–1941) and becoming a lawyer. In 1925, she married Raymond Sarraute, a fellow lawyer, with whom she had three daughters. In 1932 she wrote her first book, '' Tropismes,'' a series of brief sketches and memories that set the tone for her entire ''oeuvre''. The novel was first published in 1939, although the impact of World War II stunted its popularity. In 1941, Sarraute was barred from working as a lawyer as a result of the Vichy regime's antisemitic laws. During this time, she went into hiding and made arrangements to divorce her husband in an effort to protect him (although they eventually stayed together). Sarraute died at the age of 99 in 1999 in Paris, France. Her daughter, the journalist Claude Sarraute, was married to French Academician Jean-François Revel.


Career

Sarraute dedicated herself to literature, with her most prominent work being ''Portrait of a Man Unknown'' (1948), a work applauded by
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...
, who famously referred to it as an "anti-novel" and who also contributed a foreword. Despite such high critical praise, however, the work only drew notice from literary insiders, as did her follow-up, ''Martereau''. Sarraute's essay ''The Age of Suspicion'' (''L'Ère du soupçon'', 1956) served as a prime manifesto for the
nouveau roman The Nouveau Roman (, "new novel") is a type of French novel in the 1950s and 60s that diverged from traditional literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the term in an article in the popular French newspaper ''Le Monde'' on May 22, 1957 to describ ...
literary movement, alongside
Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the ''Nouveau Roman'' () trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simo ...
's ''For a New Novel''. Sarraute became, along with Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon,
Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...
, and
Michel Butor Michel Butor (; 14 September 1926 – 24 August 2016) was a French poet, novelist, teacher, essayist, art critic and translator. Life and work Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille, the third of seven chil ...
, one of the figures most associated with the rise of this new trend in writing, which sought to radically transform traditional narrative models of character and plot. Sarraute was awarded the '' Prix international de littérature'' for her novel ''The Golden Fruits'' in 1963, which led to greater popularity and exposure for the author. That same year, Sarraute also began working as a dramatist, authoring a total of six plays, including ''Le Silence'' (1963), ''Le Mensonge'' (1965) and ''Elle est là'' (1993). As a result of Sarraute's growing popularity and public profile, she was invited to speak at a number of literary events in her native country of Russia ,in France, and abroad. Sarraute's work, including the novels ''Between Life and Death'' (1968), ''The Use of Speech'' (1980) and ''You Don't Love Yourself'' (1989), have been translated into more than 30 languages. Her work has often been referred to as "difficult," as a result of her experimental style and abandonment of traditional literary conventions. Sarraute celebrated the death of the literary "character" and placed her primary emphasis on the creation of a faithful depiction of psychological phenomena, as in her novella ''The Golden Fruits'', consisting entirely of interior monologues, and the novel ''The Planetarium'' (1959), which focuses on a young man's obsession with moving into his aunt's apartment. The constantly shifting perspectives and points of view in Sarraute's work serve to undermine the author's hand, while at the same time embracing the incoherence of lived experience. In contrast to the relative difficulty of Sarraute's novels, her memoir ''Childhood'' is considered an easier read. Penned when she was over eighty years old, Sarraute's autobiography is hardly a straightforward memoir, as she challenges her own capacity to accurately recall her past throughout the work. In the 1980s, the autobiography was adapted into a one-act Broadway play starring Glenn Close. The issues with memory which Sarraute highlighted in her autobiography carried through to her last novel, ''Here'', published in 1995, in which the author explores a range of existential issues relating to the formlessness of both individual and social reality. Agnès Varda dedicated her 1985 film '' Sans toit ni loi'' (Vagabonde) to her.


Bibliography


Novels

* '' Tropismes'' (1939; revised 1957). ''Tropisms'', trans.
Maria Jolas Maria Jolas (January 12, 1893 – March 4, 1987), born Maria McDonald, was an American translator and pacifist, one of the founding members of Transition (literary journal), ''transition'' in Paris with her husband Eugene Jolas. Life Jolas wa ...
with ''The Age of Suspicion'' (1963). * ''Portrait d’un inconnu'' (1948; revised 1956). ''Portrait of a Man Unknown'', trans. Maria Jolas (1958). * ''Martereau'' (1953). Trans. Maria Jolas (1959). * ''Le Planétarium'' (1959). ''The Planetarium'', trans. Maria Jolas (1960). *''Les Fruits d'or'' (1963). ''The Golden Fruits'', trans. Maria Jolas (1964). * ''Entre la vie et la mort'' (1968). ''Between Life and Death'', trans. Maria Jolas (1969). * ''Vous les entendez ?'' (1972). ''Do You Hear Them?'', trans. Maria Jolas (1973). * ''« disent les imbéciles »'' (1976). ''"fools say"'', trans. Maria Jolas (1977). * ''L’Usage de la parole'' (1980). ''The Use of Speech'', trans. Barbara Wright (1980). *''Enfance'' (1983). ''Childhood'', trans. Barbara Wright (1984). * ''Tu ne t’aimes pas'' (1989). ''You Don’t Love Yourself'', trans. Barbara Wright (1990). *''Ici'' (1995). ''Here'', trans. Barbara Wright (1997). *''Ouvrez'' (1997). ''Open''.


Plays

*''Le Silence'' (1964). ''Silence'', trans. Maria Jolas with ''The Lie'' (1969). *''Le Mensonge'' (1966). ''The Lie'', trans. Maria Jolas with ''Silence'' (1969). *''Isma, ou ce qui s’appelle rien'' (1970). ''Izzum''. *''C’est beau'' (1975). ''It’s Beautiful''. *''Elle est là'' (1978). ''It Is There.'' *''Collected Plays'' (1980). Translated by Maria Jolas and Barbara Wright. Includes ''It Is There, It’s Beautiful, Izzum, The Lie, Silence.'' *''Pour un oui ou pour un non'' (1981). ''For No Good Reason'' (1985).


Essays

* ''L'Ère du soupçon'' (1956). ''The Age of Suspicion: Essays on the Novel'', trans. Maria Jolas with ''Tropisms'' (1963).


See also

* ''Le Mondes 100 Books of the Century, a list which includes ''Tropisms''


References


Further reading

* Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (interview with N. Sarraute, in French) * A. S. Newman (Anthony Stewart Newman), ''Une Poésie des discours: essai sur les romans de Nathalie Sarraute'', Geneva: Droz, 1976. * Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Das Ungesehene ist nichts als das noch nicht Gesehene," Un entretien Nathalie Sarraute.''En:''Basler Zeitung.'' 22.Septembre 1994, No.221, p. 45. * *


External links

*
Brief biography

Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)


{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarraute, Nathalie 1900 births 1999 deaths People from Ivanovo People from Shuysky Uyezd 20th-century Russian Jews Russian women novelists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France White Russian emigrants to France French women novelists Jewish novelists Jewish French writers French women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Russian women writers University of Paris alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Jewish women writers