Viviane Forrester


Viviane Forrester was an essayist, novelist, journalist and literary critic.

Biography

Born Viviane Dreyfus in a French Jewish family, after wartime exile she married New Zealand painter John Forrester with whom she had two sons; they separated after some years, but never divorced. She worked for Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur and Quinzaine littéraire and was a member of the jury of the Prix Femina. She became famous internationally with her books on Virginia Woolf and on politics. In L'horreur économique and Une étrange dictature she criticized the globalisation of capitalism. These international bestsellers in particular attacked the free market dogma, and the resulting alienation and misfortunes for the unemployed.
She was also a founding member of ATTAC.
Viviane Forrester died Tuesday 30 April 2013.

Awards

She won the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie in 2009 for her biography of Virginia Woolf. She also won the Prix Femina de l'essai in 1983 for her biography of Van
Gogh and the Prix Médicis de l'essai in 1996 for "L'horreur économique".
She became a member of the Jury of the Prix Femina in 1992.

Works

This is the central point of Viviane Forrester's book: the consequences of the market economy have 'such inattention that the inattention itself is not even noticed'. In other words, a blind eye is being turned to the inequalities created by the capitalist system. She adds that, 'achieving general indifference is more a victory for the system than gaining partial support'. Her contention being that what is more important to the representatives of capital is ensuring that people do not question or care about what is going on, rather than trying to win positive endorsement for the way the system is run from the majority of the population.