'A Life Between': Ann Jefferson on writing Nathalie Sarraute's biography

Tuesday 22 November, 1.30pm - 3pm (UK time)

The Buttery, Wolfson College

Professor Ann Jefferson discusses her biography of the 20th-century French writer Nathalie Sarraute and the challenge of dealing with a reluctant biographee.

Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999) was a leading exponent of the nouveau roman and one of France’s most cosmopolitan literary figures; her life was bound up with the intellectual and political ferment of twentieth-century Europe. She was initially associated with the existentialist circle of Beauvoir and Sartre, before becoming the principal theorist and practitioner of the avant-garde French novel of the 1950s and 1960s. Her tireless exploration of the deepest parts of our inner psychological life produced an oeuvre that remains daringly modern and resolutely unclassifiable.

Ann Jefferson will speak about her biography of Sarraute, Nathalie Sarraute: A Life Between (2020), followed by a Q&A chaired by Hermione Lee.

• Ann Jefferson is professor emerita of French at the New College, Oxford is Commandeur dans l’ordre des palmes académiques (2012). Her research on French novel from Stendhal to Sarraute as well as on biography as genre is widely recognized.
• Hermione Lee is a biographer and Emeritus Professor of English Literature in the English Faculty at Oxford University.

This event will take place in the Buttery, Wolfson College (accessibility information).OCLW advises caution by wearing masks and not attending if you are feeling unwell.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-life-between-ann-jefferson-on-writing-nathalie-sarrautes-biography-tickets-431012569197