Annie Ernaux was born in 1940, made her debut in 1970 and has had a long and productive career as an author ever since. Her books, which number more than twenty in all, are often based on her own childhood, mixing fragments of memories with the collective memories that characterise the time in which she grew up. She can therefore be said to have invented a genre of her own: collective autobiography. Her best-known works include Happening and The Years.

This is a ready to use Nobel Prize lesson on the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature. The lesson is designed to take 45 minutes and includes a slideshow with a speaker’s manuscript, a video and a student assignment.

1. Show the slideshow (15 min)

Show the slides, using the speaker’s manuscript.

Slideshow (PDF 2,6 MB)

Speaker’s Manuscript (PDF 400 Kb)

2. Show the interview  (5 min)

3. Student assignment (15 min)

Let the students work with the assignment.

Student assignment (PDF 70 Kb)

4. Conclusion (10 min)

Summarise the work with the assignment and capture any questions from the students.

Links for further information

Press release for the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature

Biobibliography the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature

Excerpts from Happening and Shame by Annie Ernaux

A Swedish version of the lesson is available at nobelprizemuseum.se

More about the Nobel Prize and its founder in the lesson “Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize”