He went on to teach at the high school in Cherbourg before being appointed lecturer at the University of Chambéry, where he taught for four years. Schmitt spent his military service teaching at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, afterwards spending two years as a student teaching assistant at the University of Besançon. He has lived in Brussels since 2002 and obtained Belgian citizenship in 2008. In 1987, he was awarded the degree of PhD for his thesis "Diderot and Metaphysics" at the Paris-Sorbonne University, which was published in 1997 with the title "Diderot or the Philosophy of Seduction". He was a student there between 19, leaving with the top French teaching qualification in philosophy (agrégé de philosophie). Later, he would say: "At sixteen, I realised (or decided) that I was a writer, and I wrote, produced and acted in my first plays at high school." To improve his style, he threw himself with frenzied zeal into exercises of pastiche and re-writing, especially Molière.Īfter preparatory classes at the Lycée du Parc for France's elite universities, Schmitt passed the entrance exam to the École normale supérieure. After the show, he told his mother that he wanted to "be like the man on the poster" his mother thought he meant the actor, Jean Marais, but he replied: "No!" and read out the name on the poster " Edmond Rostand". Her son was moved to tears and the seeds of his passion for the theatre were sown. One day, his mother took him to the Théâtre des Célestins to see a performance of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac starring Jean Marais.
According to Schmitt, however, it was philosophy that saved him and taught him to be himself and to feel that he was free. The "Classiques & Contemporains" edition of La Nuit de Valognes (Don Juan on Trial) claims that Schmitt depicts himself as a rebellious teenager who detested received wisdom and was sometimes prone to violent outbursts. He was also a French boxing champion while his mother was a medal-winning runner. Life Early years Įric-Emmanuel Schmitt's parents were teachers of physical education and sport, and his father later became a physiotherapist and masseur in paediatric hospitals. His plays have been staged in over fifty countries all over the world. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (born 28 March 1960) is a Franco- Belgian playwright, short story writer and novelist, as well as a film director.
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