Prix Maillé-Latour-Landry for "La Place"

Also in 1984, Annie Ernaux received the Prix Maillé-Latour-Landry from the Académie française for her book La Place.[5] As with other French prizes of this period, sources record the year but not the precise day of the award ceremony, so it is noted here as a year‑only milestone.

The Maillé-Latour-Landry prize further recognized the literary and sociological significance of La Place, which dissects the class gulf between Ernaux and her father and the cultural codes separating the working-class café-grocery world from the realm of educated professionals. The Académie française’s endorsement signaled that her spare, documentary style—eschewing metaphor and psychological interiority—could nonetheless be considered part of the French literary tradition.

Historically, the combination of the Renaudot and the Maillé-Latour-Landry in the same year exemplifies the growing institutional acceptance of women writers exploring class and gender from an autobiographical standpoint. Ernaux’s success helped open doors for later authors who adopted similar approaches to working‑class and female experience.

Even though the exact award date is unknown, the 1984 Maillé-Latour-Landry prize stands as an important marker in Ernaux’s trajectory, confirming that her writing spoke not only to progressive circles but also to conservative guardians of the French language and canon.