French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language,

particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in
France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in
French language, by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada,
Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, etc. is referred to as Francophone literature. France itself ranks
first in the list of Nobel Prizes in literature by country.

French literature has been for French people an object of national pride for centuries, and it
has been one of the most influential components of the literature of Europe.[1][2]

The French language is a Romance language derived from Latin and heavily influenced
principally by Celtic and Frankish. Beginning in the 11th century, literature written in
medieval French was one of the oldest vernacular (non-Latin) literatures in western Europe
and it became a key source of literary themes in the Middle Ages across the continent.

Although the European prominence of French literature was eclipsed in part by vernacular
literature in Italy in the 14th century, literature in France in the 16th century underwent a
major creative evolution, and through the political and artistic programs of the Ancien
Régime, French literature came to dominate European letters in the 17th century.

In the 18th century, French became the literary lingua franca and diplomatic language of
western Europe (and, to a certain degree, in America), and French letters have had a
profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time
being heavily influenced by these other national traditions Africa, and the far East have
brought the French language to non-European cultures that are transforming and adding to
the French literary experience today.

Under the aristocratic ideals of the Ancien Régime (the "honnête homme"), the nationalist
spirit of post-revolutionary France, and the mass educational ideals of the Third Republic
and modern France, the French have come to have a profound cultural attachment to their
literary heritage. Today, French schools emphasize the study of novels, theater and poetry
(often learnt by heart). The literary arts are heavily sponsored by the state and literary
prizes are major news. The Académie française and the Institut de France are important
linguistic and artistic institutions in France, and French television features shows on writers
and poets (one of the most watched shows on French television was Apostrophes,[3] a
weekly talk show on literature and the arts). Literature matters deeply to the people of
France and plays an important role in their sense of identity.

As of 2006, French literary people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes in Literature than
novelists, poets and essayists of any other country. (However, writers in English—USA,
UK, India, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Saint Lucia—have won
twice as many Nobels as the French.) In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature, but he declined it, stating that "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-
Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow
himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable
form."[4]
French Nobel Prize in Literature winners

Paul Verlaine (far left) and Arthur Rimbaud (second to left) in an 1872 painting by Henri
Fantin-Latour.

Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France). Nobel Prize 1969.

Seminar with Claude Simon, Cerisy (France). Nobel Prize 1985.

French contemporary literature workshop with Marc Avelot, Philippe Binant, Bernard
Magné, Claudette Oriol-Boyer, Jean Ricardou, Cerisy (France), 1980.

For most of the 20th century, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those
of any other nation.[5] The following French or French language authors have won a Nobel
Prize in Literature:
  1901 – Sully Prudhomme (The first Nobel Prize in literature)
 1904 – Frédéric Mistral (wrote in Occitan)
 1911 – Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian)
 1915 – Romain Rolland
 1921 – Anatole France
 1927 – Henri Bergson
 1937 – Roger Martin du Gard
 1947 – André Gide
 1952 – François Mauriac
 1957 – Albert Camus
 1960 – Saint-John Perse
 1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize)
 1969 – Samuel Beckett (Irish, wrote in English and French)
 1985 – Claude Simon
 2000 – Gao Xingjian (writes in Chinese)
 2008 – J. M. G. Le Clézio
 2014 – Patrick Modiano

French literary awards

 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière – created in 1948, for crime and detective
fiction.
 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française – created 1918.
 Prix Décembre – created in 1989.
 Prix Femina – created 1904, decided each year by an exclusively female jury,
although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women.
 Prix Goncourt – created 1903, given to the author of "the best and most imaginative
prose work of the year".
 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens – created in 1987.
 Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud – created in 1957.
 Prix Médicis – created 1958, awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match
their talent."
 Prix Renaudot – created in 1926.
 Prix Tour-Apollo Award – 1972–1990, given to the best science fiction novel
published in French during the preceding year.
 Prix des Deux Magots – created in 1933.