Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has been chosen to join the French national linguistic watchdog, the Académie Française, becoming the first member of the élite institution never to have written a book in French.
The 86-year-old novelist, who also has Spanish citizenship, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, and is the first holder of the award at the Académie Française since Francois Mauriac, who won the Nobel in 1952.
Vargas Llosa is considered among the most influential Latin American writers, taking a critical look at the region's politics and history with novels like The Time of the Hero (1963), The Green House (1966), and continuing through to 2021's Harsh Times.
He will occupy armchair number 18, previously held by Michel Serres.
Vargas Llosa writes exclusively in Spanish. His acceptance speech to the French Academy was written in collaboration with his translator.
He told his colleagues and his invited guests of his profound admiration for France, especially for the writings of Gustave Flaubert.
🔴 𝗘𝗡 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧 | M. Mario Vargas Llosa est reçu à l’Académie française en séance solennelle sous la Coupole. pic.twitter.com/yZpnc87rBk
— Institut de France (@InstitutFrance) February 9, 2023
He is now a member of three linguistic academies, having joined the Peruvian Academy of Language in 1977 and the Royal Spanish Academy in 1994.
The writer has stirred controversy in Latin America with his pro-capitalist views, often criticising the many socialist governments across the region.
Foreigners have been admitted to the Académie in the past.
The first was an American, Julien Green, in 1971, who never took French citizenship, and Canadian-Haitian Dany Laferriere joined in 2013.
The 40-member Académie Française has struggled to find members of late – there are currently five vacant positions – but has never relaxed its exacting standards.
"We cannot congratulate the Academy enough for refusing to be, like so many other constituted bodies, absolutely hostile to superiority, and for not including only imbeciles," quipped one member, Jean Dutourd, in a recent essay.
(With AFP)
