Rewarding the production of culture

Universally celebrated as the most prestigious French literary award since its inception in 1903, le Prix Goncourt plays a remarkably influential role in French literature. Linked to complex issues of the commercialization of art, the economic power of publishing houses, and the ambivalent relationship of the reading public to the critical press, the Goncourt represents a controversial phenomenon nervously anticipated every fall. Analysis of the cultural impact and critical reception of three novels recognized by the prize—Jean Rouaud's Les Champs d'honneur, Jean Echenoz's Je m'en vais, and Michel Houellebecq's La Carte et le territoire—reveals a multifaceted cultural network, embodying a fascinating mirror of the French cultural landscape itself. In 1990, the press applauded the first novel of a then-unknown Rouaud, whose book appeared with Minuit (significant because not with Gallimard, Grasset, or Seuil, the conglomerate known as "Galligrasseuil"); his exploration of the motifs of familial and national history resounded throughout France. In 1999, Echenoz's ludic conception of reality as a trompe-l'œil as duplicitous as fiction creates a hybrid text, part roman d'aventures, part polar. Finally, in 2010 Houellebecq offers a sarcastic art-world satire, is accused of plagiarizing Wikipedia, and hands to Flammarion its first Goncourt in two decades.Keywords: le Prix GoncourtPublishingRouaudEchenozHouellebecq Notes1 Excellent general sources include Carrière (1987), Caffier (1994), and Lefrère and Pierssens (2009), as well as the special issues of Lire (2003 and 2007) and of Cahiers Edmond et Jules de Goncourt (2003).2 Interestingly, in May 2013, the newspaper Le Monde launched a new literary prize, "Le Meilleur Livre du Monde," which honors authors in two categories: "romans français" (won in 2013 by Yasima Reza for Heureux les heureux) and "romans étrangers" (Kevin Powers, Yellow Birds).3 All translations from the French are my own.4 One wryly humorous depiction of the ambivalent profile of the Goncourt prize is embodied in Iegor Gran's 2003 novel, Le Truoc-nog (an anagram of "Goncourt"), which depicts the consternation of the protagonist, a writer who finds himself "goncourtable." Gran's book, published with P.O.L., was marketed in a clever way, with a red paper band across the book's cover, announcing "Truoc-nog 2003"—an image quite reminiscent of course of the presentation of actual Goncourt prize-winning books.5 For useful statistical information, see Kopp (2012).Additional informationNotes on contributorsPamela A. GenovaPamela Genova is David Ross Boyd Professor and Presidential Professor of French (University of Oklahoma). She works in nineteenth- through twenty-first-century French literature and culture. Publications include André Gide dans le labyrinthe de la mythotextualité (1995) and Symbolist Journals: A Culture of Correspondence (2003). She has a new book under contract with Northwestern University Press: Writing "Japonisme": Aesthetic Translation in 19th-century French Writing

Ambivalence · Art · Art history · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · French Literature and Critical Theory · French Literature and Criticism

• Prizing Francophonie into Existence

  Madeline Bedecarré•Journal of World Literature•2020

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