The Goncourt Prize will be awarded tomorrow, Monday, November 4, to one of the four finalist authors in the running, Sandrine Collette, Hélène Gaudy, Kamel Daoud and Gaël Faye. For the rewarded writer, it is the assurance of selling 400,000 copies of their book. A social question that comes up every year and that we decipher with the sociologist Jean Viard.
franceinfo: Are the financial stakes enormous for authors and publishers?
Jean Viard: For the world of books, it is the annual event which puts the book at the heart of the social debate, it is a bit like the Olympic Games which have an enormous effect on small village clubs, there are plenty of young people who are going to register, etc. The book becomes the heart of the debate. We are waiting for the Goncourt, there is the Renaudot, etc. and I believe the defense of books in France, the defense of this culture of writing, is its emblem, it is its flag.
And afterwards, obviously, it's a huge event, for the author of course, because the one who wins the Goncourt prize arrives at the king's court. And then there is the economic issue. For publishing houses, this is obviously an asset. For a long time, there was a huge Gallimard/Grasset fight. Gallimard became “The Queen” because Gallimard is also Flammarion who distributes Actes Sud, etc. But there are plenty of houses that have won the Goncourt prize: Actes Sud has won it several times, L'Olivier, Le Seuil, Philippe Rey editions. So it has become democratized, it shows this extraordinary diversity.
If we talk about the two favorites, on the one hand, Kamel Daoud who talks about the massacres of the black decade in Algeria, on the other, Gaël Faye who talks about the post-genocide in Rwanda, these are two books which will inevitably get people talking of them if they win, they are very linked to the history of France?
Yes, but that's magnificent, I like it when they are books where we learn something. Now, the Algerian question and the Rwanda question are two enormous questions which have been appalling, close to home, the question of the relationship between Europe, France and Africa. We saw this again with the visit of the President of the Republic to Morocco. These are real books that make you think about the world, that's what interests me the most compared to books that are more introspective.
It is good that there is a central fight between these two books, the two subjects are major subjects of our time, subjects of respect for human rights, subjects of reflection on the link between Europe and these countries which were former colonies, the whole question of colonialism in fact. If one of them wins, that would make me happy.
Ten jurors decide the winner and the prize is awarded, according to tradition, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, a tradition which has lasted for 110 years. Is this all a bit outdated?
It's the same debate that we had on the Nobel Prize, these great traditions which come from civil society, it's like the IPCC. The great places of power of our time often do not come from institutions, they have more influence on what we will read than the French Academy, if I may say so. Personally, I am happy that it is civil society – authors, publishers – who have built flags to promote authors. It must remain that, and casually, the system of co-opting the authors who are there, it seems to me that we have put a little order into it, it is positive; It’s a prize for civil society and that’s still a great victory.
Afterwards, there are enormous stakes, so it’s very complicated. How do you say to an author or a member of the jury: listen next year, I'll publish you and I'll do a big promotion on your book? Could there be influence? Yes, every human society experiences relationships of influence. Let's hope they are reasonable, because the idea that there are no reports of influence might be a bit exaggerated.
