The philosopher is the tenth woman to join the Immortals. Sylviane Agacinski was elected this Thursday to the French Academy, reveals the newspaper Point. She takes the chair of Jean-Loup Dabadie, writer and lyricist who died in May 2020 at the age of 81. The essayist Sylviane Agacinski obtained this place by 13 votes out of 23 voters, including 7 refusals.
After three blank elections – Eric Neuhoff, Frédéric Beigbeder or even Franz-Olivier Giesbert having failed to obtain the necessary number of votes – chair no. 19 is finally occupied. With the election of Sylviane Agacinski, La Coupole now has seven women and twenty-nine men.
PMA and surrogacy controversy
Sylviane Agacinski, 78, has written a prolific work on sexual alterity, claiming to be a “new feminism”. But she also caused controversy in her political family, the left, by her positions hostile to medically assisted procreation (PMA) for all women and to surrogacy (GPA).
Companion of the philosopher Jacques Derrida, with whom she had a son in 1984 whom she raised alone, the author of “Politics of the sexes” married the future socialist presidential candidate and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in 1994.
Four vacant chairs
His latest attempt, Faced with a holy war (2022), is a response to those who have accused her of Islamophobia, an accusation according to her regularly brandished “to hide Islamist proselytism”.
Of the 40 chairs of the French Academy, there are now four vacant. Another election is scheduled for June 22, in chair 6, with candidates like the philosopher specializing in Islam Christian Jambet or the oncologist David Khayat.