- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
Annie Ernaux: 'I'm just a woman who writes'
A feminist icon for generations in France and beyond, the newly crowned Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux described herself to AFP earlier this year as "a woman who writes -- that's all".
Ernaux was speaking in Cannes where she was presenting "The Super 8 Years", a documentary drawn from home videos of her family life during the decade that made her one of the leading voices in French literature.
The recordings were made between 1972 and 1981 by her ex-husband, now deceased, and show Ernaux torn between married bourgeois living, and her burgeoning calling as a writer.
"These 10 years were the crucial years of my life because they confirmed my desire to write," she told AFP.
"And also because I gained my freedom. I suffered without that freedom, even if I was in a loving marriage.
"It is the story of my life but also that of thousands of women who have also been in search of freedom and emancipation."
Ernaux published her first novel "Cleaned Out" in 1974 -- a harrowing account of an abortion that she kept secret from her family.
She divorced in 1984 and raised her sons alone.
- 'The images of memory' -
"The Super 8 Years" was Ernaux's directing debut, but her books have long served other filmmakers.
"The Happening", based on another account of her youthful abortion, won the Golden Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival.
The same year also saw an adaptation of her romance "Simple Passion", as well as a documentary, "I Have Loved Living Here", about new towns in France that uses her writings as a voiceover.
But Ernaux said she was not interested in working in film herself.
"I write with internal images, the images of memory," she said. "The process of writing for cinema is very different."
"The Happening" proved very timely, released just as the United States Supreme Court reversed its ruling on abortions, and allowing them to once again be criminalised.
Ernaux was not shocked.
"One could expect this conservative wave, because when women take power -- or when their voices are elevated -- men close ranks with each other," she said.
But she was pleased to see the impact of the film, since the original book, published in 2000, "didn't make many waves at the time of its release when feminism was in a dip".
Though many would argue otherwise, she does not see herself as an icon.
"I'm just a woman, a woman who writes -- that's all," she said.
She rejoices, however, at the wave of feminism triggered by MeToo and other movements.
"Women are no longer willing to let things happen to them," she said.
She spoke of her "real joy" at this new generation of activists.
"When the political scene is not too joyful, one thing that gives life, that pushes the boundaries, is feminism."
D.Avraham--CPN