Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, or J.M.G. Le Clézio (born 13 April 1940) is a French and Mauritian novelist. The author of over thirty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Biography
Le Clézio was born in the French Riviera city of Nice to a Mauritian doctor with British citizenship and French mother. His ancestors emigrated from Brittany to the île Maurice—today's Mauritius—in the 18th century. During World War II, the family was separated, his father being unable to join his wife and children in Nice. Le Clézio moved with his family at age 8 to Nigeria where his father served as a surgeon in the British army. After studying at Bristol University from 1958 to 1959, he finished his undergraduate degree at Nice's Institut d’etudes Litteraires. After several years spent in London and Bristol, he moved to the United States to work as a teacher. He was assigned to Thailand in 1967 for his military service, but was quickly expelled for protesting against child prostitution and sent to Mexico to finish his military obligation. From 1970 to 1974, he lived with the Embera-Wounaan Indians in Panama.
Le Clézio earned a master's degree with a thesis on Henri Michaux from the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1964, and wrote a doctoral thesis in 1983 on Mexico’s early history for the University of Perpignan (he is a specialist on Michoacán). He has been married since 1975 to Jémia, who is Moroccan. Since the 1990s they have divided their residence between Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mauritius, and Nice.He has taught at numerous universities around the world. A frequent visitor to South Korea, he taught French language and literature at Ewha Womans University in Seoul for two semesters from 2007 to 2008.
Works and writing
Le Clézio has been writing since age seven; his first work was a book about the sea. After majoring in French literature, he became well-known at age 23 with the publication of his first novel, Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation), which was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt and for which he was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 1963.
Since then he has published about thirty books, including short stories, novels, essays, two translations on the subject of Native American mythology, countless prefaces and reviews as well as a few contributions to collective publications. In addition he is the author of several children's books.
From 1963 to 1975 Le Clézio explored themes like insanity, language, writing and devoted himself to formal experimentation in the wake of such contemporaries as Georges Perec or Michel Butor. Le Clézio's public image was that of an innovator and a rebel, drawing praise from Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze.
In the late 1970s Le Clézio's style underwent a drastic change; he abandoned experimentation, and the mood of his novels became less tormented as he broached themes like childhood, adolescence, and traveling, which attracted a broader, more popular audience. In 1980 Le Clézio was the first winner of the newly created grand prix Paul Morand, awarded to Désert by the Académie française.
In 1994 a survey conducted by the French literary magazine Lire showed that 13% of the readers considered him to be the greatest living French language writer.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008. Other French citizens to receive the prize include Gao Xingjian in 2000; he is the first French-language writer to win since Claude Simon in 1985. 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."
Bibliography
   * Le procès-verbal (Prix Renaudot 1963; published in English as The Interrogation)
   * La fièvre (published in English as Fever)
   * Le déluge (1966, published in English as The Flood)
   * L'extase matérielle (Material Ecstasy, 1967)
   * Terra amata (Beloved Earth, 1967, published in English as Terra Amata)
   * Le livre des fuites (The Book of Escapes, 1969, published in English as The Book of Flights: An Adventure Story)
   * La guerre (1970, published in English as War)
   * Haï (1971)
   * Mydriase (1973)
   * Les géants (1973, published in English as The Giants)
   * Voyages de l'autre côté (Journeys Beyond, 1975)
   * Les prophéties du Chilam Balam (Chilam Balam Prophecies, 1976, a translation of the Chilam Balam texts.)
   * Vers les icebergs (Essai sur Henri Michaux) (To the Icebergs, 1978; an essay on Henri Michaux)
   * Mondo et autres histoires (Mondo and other stories, 1978)
   * L'inconnu sur la terre (The Stranger on the Earth, 1978)
   * Trois villes saintes (Three Holy Cities)
   * Désert (novel) (Desert, 1980)
   * La ronde et autres faits divers (1982, published in English as The Round & Other Cold Hard Facts)
   * Relation de Michoacan (translation)
   * Le chercheur d'or (1985, published in English as The Prospector)
   * Diego et Frida (biography of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo)
   * Voyage à Rodrigues (Journey to Rodrigues)
   * Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue (1988, published in English as The Mexican Dream, or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations (1993, University of Chicago Press)
   * Printemps et autres saisons (Spring and other Seasons)
   * Onitsha (1991, a reference to the African city of Onitsha, published in English under that same title)
   * Étoile errante (1992, published in English as Wandering Star : a Novel)
   * Pawana
   * La quarantaine (Quarantine)
   * Poisson d'or (The Golden Fish)
   * Gens des nuages (The Cloud People, with Jémia Le Clézio)
   * La fête chantée (Sung Celebration)
   * Hasard (suivi d'Angoli Mala) (Serendipity)
   * Cœur brûle et autres romances (Burnt Heart and other romances)
   * Révolutions
   * L'Africain (2004) (The African)
   * Ourania (2006)
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