Édouard Louis (FR) in conversation with Matthias Dressler-Bredsdorff

“When I write, it's a rebellion. Every single line starts in that rebellion.”

This is what the French Édouard Louis stated when he was asked to comment on his writing. Louis is known as a politically indignant voice in France. He writes about his origins in an underclass of the underclass, a stratum of society as ravaged by violence, alcohol and racism as ever. And he does so at a time when a word like 'proletariat' seems both antiquarian and anachronistic, but discussions about class societies and parallel societies are more relevant than ever before.

Conversations about class, inequality and social mobility

When Louis illuminates 21st century class issues in his writing, he does so with political indignation and with a deeply felt guilt and shame, and this has made him one of the greatest modern literary voices in Europe. Louis will be in conversation with journalist Matthias Dressler-Bredsdorff on the International Authors' Stage on class, inequality and what you have to take with you and leave behind when you try to break out.

The conversation will take place in English, and during the talk actor Mathias Skov Rahbæk will read from the Danish translation of Louis' latest book Changer: Méthode.

The journey from the bottom of society to the elite

“The story of my life is a long series of broken friendships. At every stage of my life, of this race with myself, I had to leave people I had loved in order to go even further.”

This is what Louis writes in his latest book, Changer: Méthode, which will be published in Danish at Gyldendal on 5 January. Louis was born in a poor working-class town in northern France, where there was no room for the more sensitive and flamboyant personality traits that Louis displayed from an early age. His journey from breaking out of the hard, masculine society and finding his way via his literature to France's economic, political and cultural top - and the acquaintances he had to leave behind on the way - is the common thread that runs through the method of Changer: Méthode.

Participants

Édouard Louis

Édouard Louis was born Eddy Bellegueule and debuted in 2014 with the award-winning bestseller, The End of Eddy, about his own upbringing as a homosexual in 'Outskirts France' in an environment of total poverty - culturally, socially and economically. The publication of Who Killed My Father (da. 2019) and A Woman's Battles and Transformations (da. 2022) have cemented his reputation as one of the great new voices of European literature.

Matthias Dressler-Bredsdorff

Matthias Dressler-Bredsdorff is a critic and writer at Information, as well as Europe editor at Magasinet Eftertryk. He has lived the last 7 years in Paris, where he tried to understand contemporary French culture and history from his base as an associate professor at the Sorbonne Université. He has recently moved home to Denmark, but so far still insists on listening to French radio in the morning.

Mathias Rahbæk

Mathias Rahbæk was educated at the Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2016 and has starred in various films and in the TV series Bedrag (2019) and Doggystyle (2019), as well as several theatre performances at the Royal Danish Theatre in the performances Penthesilea and Mutter Courage, and at Betty Nansen in the performance The Supreme Gentleman.