Diversity of voices, diversity of languages : one week of events and readings in Lyon and in the Rhône-Alpes region.
Chantal Thomas
© Ulf Andersen
WRITER
France
Chantal Thomas was born in Lyon in 1945 and spent her childhood in Arcachon. She studied philosophy, taking classes with Roland Barthes. Fascinated by the eighteenth century, she is interested in the marquis de Sade, Casanova, Marie-Antoinette, and the salon life she describes in L’esprit de conversation. A research director at the CNRS, Thomas has also taught in the United States, at Yale and Princeton. She is also a novelist and author of theater pieces. In love with freedom, literature, history and travel, she tells her life story in Cafés de la mémoire.
Her novel Les Adieux à la Reine, which was awarded the Prix Femina in 2002 and was made into a film by Benoit Jacquot, introduced her to a wider audience. She writes for Le Monde and programs on France Culture, and is a member of the Prix Femina jury.
Thomas is one of the honorary presidents of the Prix Marguerite-Duras and an officer in the French order of Arts and Letters.
