The prestigious French Academy, guardian of the Molière language, founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, has a new perpetual secretary as of this Thursday. The choice has fallen on the Franco-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, 74 years old, Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2010 and author of The Rock of Tanios and León the African.
Maalouf has prevailed over the other candidate, the former diplomat Jean-Christophe Rufin. The perpetual secretary, the position that heads the institution of the so-called immortals, had been vacant since the death last month of the historian and expert on Russia Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, 94, nicknamed the Tsarina, who held the position since 1999. and maintained intense activity almost until the last day.
Born in Beirut in 1949 and speaking Arabic as his mother tongue, Maalouf went into exile in France in 1976 due to the civil war that devastated Lebanon. He had previously worked as a journalist and covered major international events such as the fall of the monarchy in Ethiopia and the Vietnam War. Already in France, he alternated his work as a journalist and his role as a writer. He won the Goncourt Prize in 1993 for La Roca de Tanios. "He always writes from a wound," he confessed in an interview with FranceInfo a few years ago.
During a press conference after his election, Maalouf emphasized the relevance of the institution that he will lead. "I am convinced that the mission of the French Academy is even more important today than it was in Richelieu's time," he said. "It is an essential element of the identity of a nation and of the splendor of France in the world", he continued. "We are in a helpless world and I think we need places that represent a kind of moral conscience," Maalouf said.
One of Maalouf's most imperative tasks will be to complete the ninth edition of the Academy Dictionary, to which his predecessor devoted much energy. Maalouf did not want to get involved in the guidance he will give to the Academy on issues such as controversial inclusive writing. Until now, conservative criteria have prevailed.
Maalouf, who was the clear favorite, as a man of consensus, represents the cross-border intellectual, a bridge figure between cultures. The new perpetual secretary has always viewed with great concern the drift towards confrontation between East and West, which he has wanted to avoid at all costs. The author frequently stated that he detests "identity conflicts" and "communitarianism", the concept used in France to define ethnic, cultural and religious communities that close in on themselves and create a point apart from the rest of the world. the Republic.
