For the movement of thinking
The European Essay Award reveals to readers the best essays in all disciplines. It draws attention to authors whose work bear witness to and offer a fertile critique of current societies, their practices and ideologies. Awarded since 1975, it is the first literary prize devoted solely to the genre of the essay.
Mona Chollet is awarded the European Essay Prize for Réinventer l’amour
Photo © Mathieu Zazzo
The 44th European Essay Prize is granted to Mona Chollet for her book Réinventer l’amour [Reinventing Love], Editions La Découverte.
Mona Chollet invites us to take a look at how, in our representation of the heterosexual couple, some type of female inferiority is often encoded. She analyses the social conditioning of both genders, which prevents mutual understanding and trust. And she illustrates how the fundamental step of deconstruction can allow us to see what is, enabling men and women to pursue new definitions of love.
“Denis de Rougemont said it as well when he was analysing the western morbid taste for passion, ‘Being in love does not necessarily mean to love. Being in love is a state; to love, an action.’ To counter passion, in which the other is only a guise, an illusion, the Swiss philosopher offered a love that accepts the other just the way they are and works for their wellbeing. […] As bell hooks writes, ‘Definitions are vital starting points for the imagination. What we cannot imagine cannot come into being.’ That definition seems so simple, but, if we were to carry it out, it would lead many of us – and not only those of us entangled in toxic relationships – to a total reorganisation of our lives.”
Mona Chollet
Award Ceremony—Replay
Bienvenue—Cyril Veillon
Cyril Veillon
Président de la Fondation
Le 8 avril 2022 à Lausanne
Introduction—Estelle Doudet
Estelle Doudet
Vice rectrice de l’Université de Lausanne
Le 8 avril 2022 à Lausanne
Motivations du Jury—Lukas Bärfuss
Lukas Bärfuss
Écrivain, membre du jury du Prix Européen de l’Essai
Le 8 avril 2022 à Lausanne
Laudatio—Victoire Tuaillon
Victoire Tuaillon
Journaliste et autrice
Le 8 avril 2022 à Lausanne
Conférence—Mona Chollet
Mona Chollet
Lauréate du Prix Européen de l’Essai
Le 8 avril 2022 à Lausanne
Round Table with Mona Chollet—Replay
Mona Chollet discute avec:
—Mireille Berton, Section d’histoire et esthétique du cinéma, Faculté des Lettres, Unil
—Véronique Boillet, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d’administration publique, et co-présidente de la plateforme interfacultaire en études genre (PlaGe), Unil
—Carole Clair, Faculté de biologie et de médecine, Unil
—Ilana Eloit, Centre en Études genre, Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques, Unil
—Delphine Gardey, Institut des Etudes genre, Université de Genève
—Éléonore Lépinard, Centre en Études genre, Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques, Unil
Modération:
—Francesco Panese, Membre du jury du Prix Européen de l’Essai, Facultés des sciences sociales et politiques, et de biologie et de médecine, Unil
Captation de la table ronde du Prix Européen de l’Essai 2022
En partenariat avec l’Université de Lausanne