Apostrophes

Highly influential television programme hosted by Bernard Pivot and broadcast on Friday evenings by Antenne 2 between 1975 and 1990. Lasting 75 minutes, the format consisted of a studio discussion among six authors, each of whom in turn answered Pivot's questions before being submitted to the comments and questions of the others. The studio atmosphere has been described as a cross between a literary salon and a boxing match. Although the programme offered an opportunity for writers of serious fiction to reach a mass audience, it became controversial as its influence over book-sales figures became evident. Bookshops began to have an ‘Apostrophes’ table for the books featuring in the week's programme, and Pivot was accused in 1979 by Régis Debray of exercising a dictatorship over the market as he developed two spin-off programmes (Apos and Strophes) in addition to a monthly magazine entitled Lire. Michel Tournier, Philippe Sollers, and Bernard-Henri Lévy were amongst the most frequently invited authors. A few broadcasts were devoted to a long interview with a single author: amongst these figured Raymond Aron, Marguerite Duras, Julien Green, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Marguerite Yourcenar.

[Elizabeth Fallaize]