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Le génie féminin #3
Colette
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of her death, this intellectual biography of Colette―the final volume of Julia Kristeva's trilogy "Female Genius"―will be considered a major breakthrough in understanding one of the great creative minds of the twentieth century.
Colette (1873-1954) was a prolific novelist who celebrated sexual pleasure and invented a language for it at a time when women writers were inhibited about dealing with the topic. Female sexuality in a male-dominated world and the joys and pains of love served as her main themes, and her novels― Cheri, La Chatte, and Gigi, among them―blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction long before autobiographical novels became commonplace. She married three times, had male and female lovers, and for a time supported herself as a mime, dancing semi-nude in music halls throughout France. When she died, she received the first state funeral the French Republic had ever given a woman.
Colette's writing was inspired by entertainers, courtesans, an aristocratic Parisian lesbian subculture, and fin de siècle gay aesthetes. She admired those who lived on the sexual edge and was accused of moral corruption in intellectual matters―she published in pro-Vichy, anti-Semitic journals during the Occupation, even as she fought to keep her Jewish third husband from deportation. Kristeva deftly examines Colette's controversial life and work and considers two of her most important influences, Honoré de Balzac and Marcel Proust. In a multifaceted approach, Kristeva considers Colette's use of metaphor, the characters in her novels, and the development of her writing within the context of her life. Paying particular attention to the language the French writer used to "say the unsayable and name the unnameable," Kristeva offers an elegant and sophisticated critique of Colette's psychological conflicts, particularly her sexual relationships and how these conflicts are both recorded in and resolved through the act of writing.
Appealing to Freudian and Lacanian concepts such as the Oedipus complex, perversion, the symbolic, and melancholy, Kristeva opens Colette's oeuvre to psychoanalytic interpretation. The impression that remains is of a woman intent on experiencing the world's pleasures―its jouissance ―in a melding with the world's flesh.
Colette (1873-1954) was a prolific novelist who celebrated sexual pleasure and invented a language for it at a time when women writers were inhibited about dealing with the topic. Female sexuality in a male-dominated world and the joys and pains of love served as her main themes, and her novels― Cheri, La Chatte, and Gigi, among them―blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction long before autobiographical novels became commonplace. She married three times, had male and female lovers, and for a time supported herself as a mime, dancing semi-nude in music halls throughout France. When she died, she received the first state funeral the French Republic had ever given a woman.
Colette's writing was inspired by entertainers, courtesans, an aristocratic Parisian lesbian subculture, and fin de siècle gay aesthetes. She admired those who lived on the sexual edge and was accused of moral corruption in intellectual matters―she published in pro-Vichy, anti-Semitic journals during the Occupation, even as she fought to keep her Jewish third husband from deportation. Kristeva deftly examines Colette's controversial life and work and considers two of her most important influences, Honoré de Balzac and Marcel Proust. In a multifaceted approach, Kristeva considers Colette's use of metaphor, the characters in her novels, and the development of her writing within the context of her life. Paying particular attention to the language the French writer used to "say the unsayable and name the unnameable," Kristeva offers an elegant and sophisticated critique of Colette's psychological conflicts, particularly her sexual relationships and how these conflicts are both recorded in and resolved through the act of writing.
Appealing to Freudian and Lacanian concepts such as the Oedipus complex, perversion, the symbolic, and melancholy, Kristeva opens Colette's oeuvre to psychoanalytic interpretation. The impression that remains is of a woman intent on experiencing the world's pleasures―its jouissance ―in a melding with the world's flesh.
448 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 1999
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About the author
Julia Kristeva
209 books850 followersJulia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII and author of many acclaimed works. Her Columbia University Press books include Hatred and Forgiveness (2012); The Severed Head: Capital Visions (2014); and, with Philippe Sollers, Marriage as a Fine Art (2016).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 1, 2022
In realtà abbandonato; purtroppo questa opzione manca in Goodreads.
Kristeva mi aveva già fregato tantissimi anni fa con "stranieri a noi stessi", libro scritto meravigliosamente, ma di cui non conservo alcun ricordo sostazioso.
Idem con questo saggio.
Adoro Colette, non è un segreto per nessuno, leggerei anche la sua lista della spesa, come si dice ed ho visto entrambi i film biorafici su di lei; quindi quando ho letto di un libro dedicato a lei mi ci sono fiondato.
Però non si capisce di cosa parla: tante splendide parole ben armonizzate, ma su cosa sarebbe questo saggio?
Boh!
Kristeva mi aveva già fregato tantissimi anni fa con "stranieri a noi stessi", libro scritto meravigliosamente, ma di cui non conservo alcun ricordo sostazioso.
Idem con questo saggio.
Adoro Colette, non è un segreto per nessuno, leggerei anche la sua lista della spesa, come si dice ed ho visto entrambi i film biorafici su di lei; quindi quando ho letto di un libro dedicato a lei mi ci sono fiondato.
Però non si capisce di cosa parla: tante splendide parole ben armonizzate, ma su cosa sarebbe questo saggio?
Boh!
August 4, 2012
This is an excellent view of Colette's complex and challenging life. Very little is left to the imagination. People who know me will recognize the cover photo as a frequent icon I use. It's a constant reminder of how she lived her life. With courage and beauty.
Read
February 19, 2016C'est toujours aussi fascinant de lire sur Colette mais la psychanalyse, c'est vraiment pas pour moi. ;-)
January 28, 2017
I've just started it but I'm already LOVING it!
I've finished it and really enjoyed it. What a great informative read. It was written in 1990, though. So, twenty years has gone by and I'm hoping to find a more up-to-date writing to fill me in on the last twenty years.
I've finished it and really enjoyed it. What a great informative read. It was written in 1990, though. So, twenty years has gone by and I'm hoping to find a more up-to-date writing to fill me in on the last twenty years.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews