Nerea González |
Paris (EFE).- The Spanish-Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa will become this Thursday the first writer in Spanish to enter the French Academy, the centennial institution in charge of watching over Molière’s language, which breaks several of its own traditions to host the author of “La fiesta del Chivo”.
The public welcome to Vargas Llosa will take the form of a solemn ceremony in the Amphitheater of the French Institute, in Paris, but only a small audience will be able to hear his thank you speech under the famous dome of what was originally the building of the College of the Four Nations.
On the Spanish-Peruvian’s guest list are, in addition to his close relatives, the Spanish king emeritus Juan Carlos I (who will arrive on a private trip this Wednesday) and his daughter Infanta Cristina, among others.
The election of Vargas Llosa, 86, as a new member of the Academy, took place in November 2021, and already generated criticism from groups of French intellectuals, both because the 2010 Nobel Prize winner has never written in French and because of his political positions, which some considered close to the extreme right.
His admission age is also a violation of the rules of the institution founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, who since 2010 had established a limit of 75 years as a maximum to run for one of the 40 seats of “the immortals”. the name by which academics are known by the motto “À l’immortalité” (To Immortality) from the Academy’s seal.
«He is someone who has a deep bond with France and the Academy has made an exception. Why not? While respecting traditions, it is sometimes necessary to make exceptions,” the French writer and chronicler Jean-Marie Rouart, who has held the 26th seat of the academy since 1997, explained to EFE.
The election of Vargas Llosa, a “symbol”
The “voice as an academic” of the author of “The city and the dogs” will be, according to Rouart, a sign of the importance of the literature of a writer who, despite not writing in French, “adores France.” In addition, no candidacy is usually received unanimously.
“When a great writer enters the Academy it is always a symbol,” stressed this academic.
The French Academy, in fact, was conceived as a kind of emblem of the “deep bond of identity between France and its literature,” Rouart opined, something that Richelieu “understood perfectly.”
In the same way, the ceremony that will begin at 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) follows protocols with centuries of history.
Vargas Llosa was already “installed” last week, privately, in his position -the 18th seat vacated by the philosopher Michel Serres in 2019-, but it will be at this Thursday’s appointment when he will wear the traditional dark suit for the first time with embroidered green olive leaves worn by academics since the early 19th century.
If he follows classical traditions, he will also carry a sword designed for the occasion.
The weapon – a custom even older than the suit, since it dates from the times of the creation of the Academy – is, according to Rouart, a sign that equated the academics with “the aristocrats” of the time of the reign of Louis XIII (1601-1643).
Some candidates, however, opt for other types of accessories, from fans to bags, especially in the case of the few women who made up the Academy throughout its history. Only ten occupied their chairs in almost four centuries, with Marguerite Yourcenar as a pioneer in 1980.
«The Immortals» meet once a week, every Thursday, in private and at 3:00 p.m., and their mission is to contribute to the improvement of the French language and to update the dictionary.
Vargas LLosa’s current “confrères” (colleagues) include, among others, the writer of Lebanese origin Amin Maalouf; the writer Chantal Thomas; the Bishop of Angoulême, Claude Dagens, and the historian and political scientist Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, who has also held the position of “perpetual secretary” of the institution since 1990.
