Gwenaëlle Aubry (born 2 April 1971) is a French

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Personal life and education

After two years of preparatory classes at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris, Aubry began her studies at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in 1989 at the age of eighteen, earning an ''

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

'' in Philosophy in 1992. She then received the Knox Scholarship at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, where she earned a Master of Philosophy. In 1999, she received a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne. She is married to the philosopher

Quentin Meillassoux Quentin Meillassoux (; ; born 26 October 1967) is a French philosopher. He teaches at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Biography Quentin Meillassoux is the son of the anthropologist Claude Meillassoux. He ...

Career

She was an associate professor in ancient philosophy at the Université de Nancy II from 1999 to 2002. She now serves as a Director of Research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique ational Centre for Scientific Researchand an associate member of the Centre international d'étude de la philosophie française contemporaine nternational Center for the Study of Contemporary French Philosophy(ENS-Ulm). She is also a member of the reading committee at the Théâtre national de la Colline.

Her work

She published her first novel, ''Le Diable détacheur'', in 1999. 2002 saw the publication of ''L'Isolée'', which was inspired by

Florence Rey Florence Rey (, born August 27, 1975) and her boyfriend Audry Maupin (, born April 20, 1972) were involved in a shoot-out in central Paris on October 4, 1994, following a high speed car chase. The incident dramatically involved homicide, hostage- ...

, and then revised and expanded in 2003 with the addition of the short narrative ''L'Isolement.'' In 2007, after a residence at the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a sixteenth-century Italian Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with 7-hectare Italian garden, contiguous with the more extensive Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in the historic ...

, she published ''Notre vie s'use en transfigurations'', excerpts of which were staged by Sarah Oppenheim for the play "Donnez-moi donc un corps!", put on in 2017 by the

Théâtre du Soleil Le Théâtre du Soleil (, "The Theater of the Sun") is a Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble founded by Ariane Mnouchkine, Philippe Léotard and fellow students of the ''L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq'' in 1964 as a collective ...

. In 2009, Aubry received the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

for ''Personne,'' an alphabet-novel, which is a portrait of a melancholic "from twenty-six angles with nothing at the center". The book was also short-listed for the

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis () is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and .

, the

Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie française The is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie Française. Along with the Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the ...

, the Prix Novembre, and the

Prix de Flore The Prix de Flore is a French literary prize founded in 1994 by Frédéric Beigbeder. The aim of the prize is to reward youthful authors and it is judged by a panel of journalists. It is awarded yearly in November, at the Café de Flore in Paris. T ...

. It has been translated into a dozen languages and was published in the United States as ''No One'' in Trista Selous's translation with a preface by

Rick Moody Hiram Frederick Moody III (born October 18, 1961) is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel '' The Ice Storm'', a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1 ...

. In 2012 ''Partages'' came out, a "book of hauntings", which mirrors, sometimes on alternating pages, the voices of two young girls, one Jewish, the other Palestinian, in Israel during the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

. It was long-listed for the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

and was a finalist for the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie française. In 2015, she published "Lazare mon amour", a prismatic portrait of Sylvia Plath, in ''L'Une et L'Autre''. She then adapted it into a play, which was published separately in 2016. In 2016 the autobiographical novel ''Perséphone 2014'' came out. Performed by the author and accompanied by the guitarist Sébastien Martel, the text was also staged by Anne Monfort on the occasion of the tenth Festival de Caves. Partial translations into English have appeared from Benjamin Eldon Stevens (''Arion'', winter 2018, 25.3: 161–173) and from Wendeline A. Hardenberg ( ''Asymptote'', April 2019). In 2018 her novel ''La Folie Elisa'' was published. A staged version featuring Aubry, guitarist Sébastien Martel, and Judith Chemla was performed in November 2018. Aubry produced a radio play adaptation of

Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and '' The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...

's '' The Death of Virgil'' for

France Culture France Culture () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist ...

and has written literary studies of

Yves Bonnefoy Yves Jean Bonnefoy (24 June 1923, Tours – 1 July 2016, Paris) was a French poet and art historian. He also published a number of translations, most notably the plays of William Shakespeare which are considered among the best in French. He was a ...

W. G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was according to ''The New Yorker'' ”widely recog ...

, and

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

, as well as short works published in magazines and journals, particularly ''

La Nouvelle Revue française LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

''. She is also the author of several books and a number of articles on

ancient philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures ro ...

and its contemporary reception, as well as a translator from ancient Greek (

Plotinus Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...

, Porphyrus,

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...

). In 2018 ''Genèse du Dieu souverain''. ''Archéologie de la puissance II'' was published, the second volume following ''Dieu sans la puissance''. The author rejected the first mover of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

could ever have been the first principle of all things because it is solely able to attract entities capable of its imitation, and declared to choose the potence of all beings (in

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: dunamis pantōn) described by

and

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

Major works

* ''Le Diable détacheur'',

Actes Sud Actes Sud is a French publishing house based in Arles. It was founded in 1978 by author Hubert Nyssen. By 2013, the company, then headed by Nyssen's daughter, Françoise Nyssen, had an annual turnover of 60 million euros and 60 staff members. ...

, 1999 (reissued by

Mercure de France The () was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was publis ...

, 2012, winner of the Bourse

Cino Del Duca Cino Del Duca (25 July 1899 – 24 May 1967) was an Italian-born businessman, film producer, and philanthropist who moved to France in 1923, where he made a fortune in the French publishing business. Biography Cino Del Duca Born in Montedinove ...

) * ''L'Isolée'', Stock, 2002 * ''L'Isolement'', Stock, 2003 (''L'isolée/L'isolement'', reissued by Mercure de France, 2010) * ''Plotin. Traité 53 ''(I, 1) Introduction, translation, commentary and notes, Cerf, Collection Les Ecrits de Plotin, 2004 * ''Notre vie s'use en transfigurations'', Actes Sud, 2007 * ''Dieu sans la puissance: Dunamis et Energeia chez Aristote et chez Plotin'' (essai), Vrin, 2007 * ''Le moi et l'intériorité'', Vrin, 2008 (editor) * ''Personne'', Mercure de France, 2009 (winner of the Prix Femina) * ''Partages'', Mercure de France, 2012 * ''Lazare mon amour'', L'Iconoclaste, 2016 * ''Perséphone 2014'', Mercure de France 2016 * ''Genèse du Dieu souverain. Archéologie de la puissance II'', Vrin, 2018 * ''La Folie Elisa'', Mercure de France, 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aubry, Gwenaelle 20th-century French novelists 1971 births Living people Prix Femina winners French women novelists 21st-century French novelists 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French women writers École Normale Supérieure alumni Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academic staff of the University of Paris French women philosophers 20th-century French philosophers 21st-century French philosophers