French writer Édouard Louis took part in a public event at Teatro Sérgio Cardoso in São Paulo on Monday (9) to discuss key themes in his literary work. The event ran parallel to the São Paulo International Theater Festival (MITsp), which features adaptations of his books. Mediated by Helena Vieira and Renan Quinalha, the discussion delved into the intersection of the personal and the political in his writing.
Édouard Louis, a literary phenomenon since his debut with "The End of Eddy" in 2014, has built a body of work blending autobiography, sociology, and political intervention. Born as Eddy Bellegueule in a working-class town in northern France, he overcame poverty, violence, and homophobia to become a prominent voice in contemporary literature.
At the free event in Teatro Sérgio Cardoso, Louis revisited his childhood, explaining how he initially saw family conflicts as individual choices. "I thought my father was racist because he wanted to be, that my brother was violent because he chose to be," he stated. Exposure to sociology revealed these behaviors stemmed from collective structures of class, masculinity, and social oppression, inspiring his literary project of personal narratives evoking shared experiences.
The mediators described his memoirs as an "encounter of two shames": that of being poor and being homosexual. Louis recalled that in a working-class environment, body, speech, and accent were sources of humiliation, compounded by the stigma of sexuality. "I thought that if I changed class, my sexual shame would disappear too," he said. Writing emerged as a means of escape and transformation, but brought new pains: upon social ascent, he felt shame for having been ashamed of his origins. "Those who should be ashamed are the bourgeois for ignoring other social classes," he declared.
The visit coincides with the MITsp, which showed "History of Violence" from March 6 to 8, directed by Thomas Ostermeier, and features "Who Killed My Father" at Sesc Pinheiros. Louis attributes the acclaim for his works in Brazil to the politicization of everyday life, driven by social inequalities and figures like Jair Bolsonaro. He joked: "Maybe I'm just a Brazilian trapped in a French body".
