Prix Goncourt


The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, prix Goncourt de la Poésie and prix Goncourt de la Biographie. Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes are the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.

History

, a successful author, critic, and publisher, bequeathed his estate for the foundation and maintenance of the académie Goncourt. In honour of his brother and collaborator, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, the académie has awarded the Prix Goncourt every December since 1903. The jury that determines the winner meets at the Drouant restaurant in November to make its decision. Notable winners of the prize include Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir, André Malraux and Marguerite Duras.
The award was initially established to provide talented new authors with a monetary award that would allow them to write a second book. Today, the Goncourt has a token prize amount, about the same amount given in 1903, and so the prestige of the prize has been explained not because of the cash-value of the prize, but "in terms of the tremendous book sales it effects: the Goncourt winner becomes an instant millionaire."
In 1987, the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens was established, as a collaboration between the académie Goncourt, the French Ministry of Education, and Fnac, a book, music, and movie retailer.
The Prix Renaudot is announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt. It has become known as something of a second-place prize.

Controversies

Within months of the first prize in 1903, it spawned a "hostile counter-prize" in the form of the Prix Femina to counter the all-male Jury of the Goncourt with an all-female jury on the Femina.
Some decisions for awarding the prize have been controversial, a famous case being the decision to award the prize in 1919 to Marcel Proust; this was met with indignation, since many in the public felt that the prize should have gone to Roland Dorgelès for Les Croix de bois, a novel about the First World War. The prize was supposed to be awarded to promising young authors, whereas Proust was not considered "young" at 48 – however Proust was a beginning author which is the only eligibility requirement, age being unimportant.
In 1921, Rene Maran won the Goncourt with Batouala, veritable roman negre, the first French novel to openly criticize European colonialism in Africa. The novel caused "violent reactions" and was banned in all the French colonies.
In 1932, the prize was controversial for passing up Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit for Guy Mazeline's Les Loups. The voting process became the basis of the 1992 book Goncourt 32 by Eugène Saccomano.
Although the award may only be given to an author once, Romain Gary won it twice, in 1956 for Les racines du ciel and again under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975 for La vie devant soi. The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to Ajar without knowing his real identity. A period of literary intrigue followed. Gary's cousin's son Paul Pavlowitch posed as the author for a time. Gary later revealed the truth in his posthumous book Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar.

Winners

Other awards

In addition to the Prix Goncourt for a novel, the Academy Awards four other awards, for first novel, short story, biography and poetry.
As of March 2009, the académie changed the award name by dropping "bourses" from the title. The prefix "prix" can be included or not, such as "Prix Goncourt de la Poésie" or "Goncourt de la Poésie". For example: "Claude Vigée was awarded a Goncourt de la Poésie in 2008". Or, "Claude Vigée won the 2008 prix Goncourt de la Poésie".
The award titles are:
Pre-2009 award namePost-2009 award nameCategory
Bourse Goncourt de la BiographiePrix Goncourt de la BiographieBiography
Bourse Goncourt de la NouvellePrix Goncourt de la NouvelleShort story
Bourse Goncourt du Premier RomanPrix Goncourt du Premier RomanDebut novel
Bourse Goncourt de la PoésiePrix Goncourt de la PoésiePoetry
Bourse Goncourt JeunessediscontinuedJuvenile

The winners are listed below.

Prix Goncourt de la Biographie

Goncourt Prize for biography. Awarded in partnership with the city of Nancy.
Goncourt Prize for short stories. Begun in 1974 in the form of scholarships. Awarded in partnership with the city of Strasbourg since 2001.
Goncourt Prize for debut novel. Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Paris.
Goncourt Prize for poetry. Established through the bequest of Adrien Bertrand. The award is for the poet's entire career work.
Goncrout Prize for children's literature. Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Fontvieille. Discontinued after 2007.