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Siri Hustvedt

シリ・ハストヴェット

Siri Hustvedt

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1955-02-19 （Northfield, Minnesota, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English, Norwegian
Residence History
Northfield, Minnesota, USA → Bergen, Norway → New York City (Brooklyn), USA

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Active Years
1983-
Affiliations
Dewitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University (lecturer), Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (Schelling lecture)
Influenced By
Charles Dickens, Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Ricoeur, Julia Kristeva
Nominations
The Blazing World — Man Booker Prize longlist (2014), What I Loved — Prix Femina Étranger (shortlist), The Summer Without Men — Prix Femina (2011, shortlist)

Education

Bergen Cathedral School
Degree: High school diploma
Period: 〜1973
Year of Graduation: 1973
Country: Norway
Completed secondary education in Norway
St. Olaf College
History
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1973–1977
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: United States
B.A. in History
Columbia University
English
Degree: Ph.D.
Period: 1978–1986
Year of Graduation: 1986
Country: United States
Dissertation: 'Figures of Dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend'

Awards

Prix des libraires du Québec
2004
Work: What I Loved
Organization: Prix des libraires du Québec
Result: 受賞
Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction)
2015
Work: The Blazing World
Category: フィクション
Organization: Los Angeles Times
Result: 受賞
Gabarron International Award for Thought and Humanities
2012
Organization: Gabarron Foundation
Result: 受賞
Honorary doctorate, University of Oslo
2014
Organization: University of Oslo
Result: 授与
Honorary doctorate, Université Stendhal–Grenoble
2015
Organization: Université Stendhal–Grenoble
Result: 授与
Honorary doctorate, Gutenberg University Mainz
2016
Organization: Gutenberg University Mainz
Result: 授与
Princess of Asturias Award (Literature)
2019
Category: 文学
Organization: Princess of Asturias Foundation
Result: 受賞
Openbank Literature Award by Vanity Fair (Career Award)
2024
Organization: Vanity Fair / Openbank
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Blindfold

1992 Novel

An early novel based on previously published stories, exploring identity and narrative perspective in an experimental manner.

IdentityPerspectiveUrban life
Adaptations
  • [Film] La Chambre des Magiciennes / Claude Miller (2000)

The Enchantment of Lily Dahl

1996 Novel

A coming-of-age story about a young woman, art, and the intersection of fantasy and reality.

Coming of ageArtImagination

What I Loved

2003 Novel

Follows the lives of close friends and those around them; a novel about art, loss, memory and ethics that gained international recognition.

Art and visualityLossMemoryEthics

The Sorrows of an American

2008 Novel

Explores family history and American social memory, intertwining private and public narratives.

FamilyMemoryAmerican society

The Summer Without Men

2011 Novel

Follows a middle-aged poet who, after a breakup, spends a summer in her hometown and reconsiders herself and gender relations.

GenderAgingSelf-reinvention

The Blazing World

2014 Novel (metafiction)

An experimental novel layering narrative and criticism, dream and reality, thematically centered on art and women's voices.

MetafictionArt criticismFemininity

Memories of the Future

2019 Novel

A recent novel dealing with memory, family history and the intersections of time; an experiment in narratives of memory and the future.

MemoryTimeFamily

Bibliography

  • Reading to You (Poetry, 1982)
  • The Blindfold (Novel, 1992)
  • The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (Novel, 1996)
  • Yonder (Nonfiction, 1998)
  • What I Loved (Novel, 2003)
  • Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting (Essays, 2005)
  • A Plea for Eros (Essays, 2005)
  • The Sorrows of an American (Novel, 2008)
  • The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (Nonfiction, 2009)
  • The Summer Without Men (Novel, 2011)
  • Living, Thinking, Looking (Essays, 2012)
  • The Blazing World (Novel, 2014)
  • A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women – Essays (2016)
  • Memories of the Future (Novel, 2019)
  • Mothers, Fathers, and Others - Essays (2021)

Adaptations

  • La Chambre des Magiciennes (film, based on a section of The Blindfold)

Translations by Author

  • Geir Kjetsaa, 'Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Writer's Life', translated by Siri Hustvedt and David McDuff (1998)

Translations of Works

  • Her works have been translated into over thirty languages (including multiple Japanese translations)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Philosophical and interdisciplinary proseNarration that incorporates essayistic and critical elementsClear, observational voice
Recurring Motifs
The gaze/viewingMemory and lossEmbodiment and neurological experienceFragmentation of identity

Health

  • Seizure disorder
    2000年代頃から（公的な記述あり）
    Her experience with seizures is the subject of her nonfiction 'The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves' and has informed her work and public talks, encouraging multi-perspective understandings of diagnosis and experience.

Legacy

Recognized as an intellectual writer who crosses the boundaries between literature and scholarship. Her essays and lectures linking art, psychoanalysis and neuroscience are highly regarded; she has received international awards and honorary doctorates.

Academic Societies

  • University of Oslo (Honorary doctorate)
  • Université Stendhal–Grenoble (Honorary doctorate)
  • Gutenberg University Mainz (Honorary doctorate)

Quotes

  • “I state my need to view my symptom not 'through a single-window' but 'from all angles.'”
    Source: The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves (2009) (2009)

Trivia

  • Grew up bilingual (English and Norwegian) with an American father and Norwegian mother.
  • Married to writer Paul Auster (m. 1982; died 2024).
  • Daughter Sophie Auster is a singer/songwriter and actress.
  • Her works have been translated into more than 30 languages.
  • A section of The Blindfold was adapted into a film by Claude Miller that won the International Critics Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.