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Pierre Guyotat

ピエール・ギヨタ

Pierre Guyotat

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1940-01-09 (Bourg-Argental)
Died
2020-02-07 (Paris) age 80
Nationality
French
Languages
French
Religion
Catholic
Residence History
Bourg-Argental → Paris → Algeria → Sahara → Los Angeles

Career

Occupations
novelist, playwright, journalist
Active Years
1961-2020
Memberships
French Communist Party (1968-1971)
Influenced By
Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse

Awards

Prix Medicis
2018
Work: Idiotie
Organization: Prix Medicis jury
Result: 受賞
Prix Femina spécial
2018
Work: Lifetime achievement
Organization: Prix Femina jury
Result: 受賞
Prix de la langue française
2010
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats

1967 Novel

Based on experiences in the Algerian War, featuring sexual obsessions and homoeroticism.

warsexual obsessionshomoeroticism
Translations
  • Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers

Eden, Eden, Eden

1970 Novel 192 pages

A single continuous sentence cataloging military atrocities, humiliations, lust; banned for explicit content.

warsexual slaverytaboos
Translations
  • Eden, Eden, Eden

Idiotie

2018 Novel

Prix Medicis winner.

Translations
  • Idiocy

Bibliography

  • Sur un cheval (1961)
  • Ashby (1964)
  • Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats (1967)
  • Eden, Eden, Eden (1970)
  • Prostitution (1975)
  • Le Livre (1984)
  • Wanted Female (1995)
  • Progénitures (2000)
  • Joyeux animaux de la misère (2014)
  • Par la main dans les enfers (2016)
  • Idiotie (2018)

Translations of Works

  • Eden, Eden, Eden (English, multiple)
  • Coma (English)
  • Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers (English)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
avant-gardeexperimentalneologismsphonetic Arabicobscenity
Recurring Motifs
imaginary North African war zonessexual slaverytaboo transgression

Health

  • psychiatric illness
    1977
    Interrupted writing
  • coma
    1981
    Hospitalized after months of neglecting body.

Legacy

French avant-garde writer known for explicit content; Eden banned. Late major awards. Manuscripts donated to BnF.

Archives

  • Bibliothèque nationale de France

In Popular Culture

  • Eden Eden Eden at 50 project (2020)

Trivia

  • Fled to Paris after mother's death to write first novel.
  • Encouraged Algerian deserters in war, imprisoned.
  • Mitterrand and Pompidou failed to lift Eden ban.