Christine Angot (born 7 February 1959) is a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter.

Life

Born Pierrette Marie-Clotilde Schwartz (Schwartz being her mother's name) in

Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Ch ...

, Indre, she is perhaps best known for her 1999 novel ''L'Inceste'' (''Incest'') which recounts an incestuous relationship with her father. It is a subject which appears in several of her previous books, but it is unclear whether these works are

autofiction In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography. Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to mod ...

, and whether the events described actually took place. Angot herself describes her work – a metafiction on society's fundamental prohibition of incest and her own writings on the subject – as

performative In the philosophy of language and speech acts theory, performative utterances are sentences which not only describe a given reality, but also change the social reality they are describing. In a 1955 lecture series, later published as ''How to D ...

acts. (cf ''Quitter la ville''). She was named the winner of the

Prix Sade The prix Sade is a French literary prize created in 2001, sometimes called the Sade Prize in English, as an homage to the marquis de Sade. History Founded by Lionel Aracil and Frédéric Beigbeder, it is awarded by a jury as a "meeting of auth ...

in 2012 for ''Une semaine de vacances''. In 2021, she was awarded the

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and . It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent." The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. In 19 ...

for her novel ''Le Voyage dans l'Est''. In collaboration with director

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

, she has written two films: ''

Let the Sunshine In "Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)" (commonly called "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", "The Age of Aquarius" or "Let the Sunshine In") is a medley of two songs written for the 1967 musical '' Hair'' by James Rado and Gerome ...

'' (2017) and '' Both Sides of the Blade'' (2022). ''Both Sides of the Blade'' is based on her novel ''Un tournant de la vie'' (2018).

Selected works

Novels

* ''Vu du ciel'' (1990) * ''Not to be'' (1991) * ''Léonore, toujours'' (1994) * ''Interview'' (1995) * ''Les Autres'' (1997) * ''Sujet Angot'' (1998) * ''L'Usage de la vie'' incluant ''Corps plongés dans un liquide'', ''Même si'' et ''Nouvelle vague'' (1998) * ''L'Inceste'' (1999) * ''Quitter la ville'' (2000) * ''Normalement'' suivi de ''La Peur du lendemain'' (2001) * ''Pourquoi le Brésil ?'' (2002) * ''Peau d'âne'' (2003) * ''La Désaxes'' (2004) * ''Une partie du cœur'' (2004) * ''Rendez-vous'' (2006) * ''Othoniel'' (2006) * ''Le Marché des amants'' (2008) * ''Les Petits'' (2011) * ''La Petite Foule'' (2014) * ''Un amour impossible'' (2015) * ''Un tournant de la vie'' (2018) * ''Le Voyage dans l'Est'' (2021)

Plays

* ''Corps plongés dans un liquide'' (1992) * ''Nouvelle vague'' (1992) * ''Même si'' (1996) * ''L'Usage de la vie '' (1997) * ''Arrêtez, arrêtons, arrête'' (1997) * ''Mais aussi autre chose'' (1999) * ''La Fin de l'amour'' (2000) * ''Meinhof/Angot'' (2001) * ''Normalement'' (2002) * ''La Place du singe'' (2005)

References

1959 births Living people People from Châteauroux French women dramatists and playwrights French women novelists 21st-century French non-fiction writers 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 21st-century French dramatists and playwrights College of Europe alumni Prix Décembre winners Prix France Culture winners Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 21st-century French women writers 20th-century French women writers Prix Médicis winners French women screenwriters 21st-century French screenwriters {{France-novelist-20thC-stub