He was one of the most influential and prolific writers of the second half of the 20th century. The famous author Philippe Sollers died this Saturday, May 6, at the age of 86. From 1958 to 2022 he published 80 novels, essays and monographs. Accustomed to television sets and literary prizes, he had been considered a figure of the French literary scene and of Tout-Paris for more than half a century.
He was born on November 28, 1936, in Talence, Gironde. Raised in a family of Gaullist industrialists, he quickly abandoned his studies to devote his life to literature. It was at this time that he adopted the name of Philippe Sollers, and dropped his surname Joyeux. He published his first novel, “Une curieuse solitude”, at the age of 22. The work is dubbed by Louis Aragon, who will say of the young writer that “the destiny of writing is before him, like an admirable meadow”. His second book, “Le Parc”, received the Prix Médicis in 1961. He then achieved public notoriety with his novel “Femmes” in 1983.
provocative writer
Philippe Sollers was also a reviewer. In particular, he confused As is in the spring of 1960, with his friend Jean-Edern Hallier. The publication will welcome the authors of the New Novel. Later, we will find texts by Francis Ponge, Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Michel Foucault or Jacques Derrida. He also worked for the publisher Gallimard, as a member of the reading committee and collection director.
Critics have often described Philippe Sollers as a provocative writer. His work indeed leaves a lot of room for sexuality and power relations. He is also interested in the consequences of feminism on society. In the 1970s, he took up the cause of Maoism, and even went to China at the invitation of Beijing, accompanied by the semiologist Roland Barthes. A position to which he will return a few years later.
