Jeanne Galzy
Encyclopedia
Jeanne Galzy born Louise Jeanne Baraduc, was a French novelist and biographer from Montpellier
. She was a member of the jury for the Prix Femina
. Largely forgotten today, she was known as a regional author, but she also wrote three novels early in her career that explore lesbian topics
; she has been referred to as one of the "pioneers in the writing of lesbian desire and despair."
, France
, the daughter of a wholesaler and an unpublished poet. She grew up in a Protestant environment and went to better schools, exceedingly rare for a young girl of the time. She studied at the École normale supérieure
de jeunes filles in Sèvres
and passed the agrégation
competitive exam.
In 1915 she gained a position teaching at the boys' lycée in Montpellier; she was the first woman to teach at the school and replaced a man who died in the trenches of World War I
. While teaching, she contracted tuberculosis
, and went to convalesce in Berck
. This experience led her to write Les Allongés, which received the Prix Femina
in 1923
. She went back to teaching, but after suffering a relapse devoted her life to writing.
After having published five novels, a play, and having received a number of literary awards, in 1929 she delivered a novel of lesbian love
between a teacher and a student, L'Initiatrice aux mains vides. Jeunes Filles en serre chaude (1934) aimed to be the portrait of the students of the École normale supérieure in Sèvres; the school was reputed to be a "breeding ground of homosexual relationship," and had earlier been the subject of a novel exploring same-sex desire, Les Sevriennes (1900) by Gabrielle Reval. Galzy was a member of the jury for the Prix Femina
for more than five decades.
—transcribing her personal experiences. Thus, in La Femme chez les garçons and L'Initiatrice aux mains vides she is considered to recount her own life as a teacher in Paris, and likewise Les Allongés is supposed to treat solely her two-year disease. Galzy herself resisted such a reading (called the "autobiographical fallacy" by literary critics), claiming that writing fiction
allowed her a detachment from reality. In Les Allongés, for instance, readers should find, besides a possible biographical connection, "a more general metaphysical investigation and validation of human suffering." Critics note, however, that explicit denials that a given novel is a roman à clef is often a rhetorical move; such a denial is given on the first page of Jeunes Filles en serre chaude, a novel of "intergenerational love" (between teacher and student) in a "pedagogic context" similar to Galzy's experiences at the École normale supérieure which questions "the suitability of contemporary educational opportunities for young women".
Three novels written relatively early in Galzy's career explore lesbian desire, L'Initiatrice aux mains vides, Les Démons de la solitude, and Jeunes Filles en serre chaude, written between 1929 and 1934. According to one critic, Galzy did not initially approach lesbianism as an issue of gender but as a problem of the social imperative against expressing same-sex attraction:
L'Initiatrice features a single schoolteacher who develops a relationship with a younger student. In Les Démons, a father and his daughter (who already has an intimate female friend) fall in love with the same girl. Jeunes Filles is the most explicit of the three, and again a relationship develops between a student and her teacher, in a possible love that is ultimately frustrated. Later in her career she would again return to lesbian themes in the series of novels published as La surprise de vivre (1969-1976).
Galzy, like other women writers of her generation (the period between the two World Wars), has suffered from critical neglect; her work, as well as that of authors like Marguerite Audoux
and Catherine Pozzi
, is relatively unknown today and often no longer in print.
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
. She was a member of the jury for the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
. Largely forgotten today, she was known as a regional author, but she also wrote three novels early in her career that explore lesbian topics
Lesbian fiction
Lesbian fiction is a subgenre of fiction that involves one or more primary female homosexual character and lesbian themes. Novels that fall into this category may be of any genres, such as, but not limited to, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance.-History:The first...
; she has been referred to as one of the "pioneers in the writing of lesbian desire and despair."
Biography
Galzy was born in 1883 in MontpellierMontpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the daughter of a wholesaler and an unpublished poet. She grew up in a Protestant environment and went to better schools, exceedingly rare for a young girl of the time. She studied at the École normale supérieure
École normale supérieure
An école normale supérieure or ENS is a type of publicly funded higher education in France. A portion of the student body who are French civil servants are called Normaliens....
de jeunes filles in Sèvres
Sèvres
Sèvres is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.The town is known for its porcelain manufacture, the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, making the famous Sèvres porcelain, as well as being the location of the International Bureau of Weights...
and passed the agrégation
Agrégation
In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...
competitive exam.
In 1915 she gained a position teaching at the boys' lycée in Montpellier; she was the first woman to teach at the school and replaced a man who died in the trenches of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. While teaching, she contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and went to convalesce in Berck
Berck
Berck, sometimes referred to as Berck-sur-Mer, is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France and lies within the Marquenterre regional park, an ornithological nature reserve...
. This experience led her to write Les Allongés, which received the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
in 1923
1923 in literature
The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in print....
. She went back to teaching, but after suffering a relapse devoted her life to writing.
After having published five novels, a play, and having received a number of literary awards, in 1929 she delivered a novel of lesbian love
Lesbian literature
This is a list of books portraying sexual relations between female characters, who may include lesbians, bisexuals and WSWs.-Classic fiction and drama:*The Bachelor Girl – Victor Margueritte –...
between a teacher and a student, L'Initiatrice aux mains vides. Jeunes Filles en serre chaude (1934) aimed to be the portrait of the students of the École normale supérieure in Sèvres; the school was reputed to be a "breeding ground of homosexual relationship," and had earlier been the subject of a novel exploring same-sex desire, Les Sevriennes (1900) by Gabrielle Reval. Galzy was a member of the jury for the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
for more than five decades.
Themes and critiques, appreciation
Galzy's novels are frequently regarded as romans à clefRoman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
—transcribing her personal experiences. Thus, in La Femme chez les garçons and L'Initiatrice aux mains vides she is considered to recount her own life as a teacher in Paris, and likewise Les Allongés is supposed to treat solely her two-year disease. Galzy herself resisted such a reading (called the "autobiographical fallacy" by literary critics), claiming that writing fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
allowed her a detachment from reality. In Les Allongés, for instance, readers should find, besides a possible biographical connection, "a more general metaphysical investigation and validation of human suffering." Critics note, however, that explicit denials that a given novel is a roman à clef is often a rhetorical move; such a denial is given on the first page of Jeunes Filles en serre chaude, a novel of "intergenerational love" (between teacher and student) in a "pedagogic context" similar to Galzy's experiences at the École normale supérieure which questions "the suitability of contemporary educational opportunities for young women".
Three novels written relatively early in Galzy's career explore lesbian desire, L'Initiatrice aux mains vides, Les Démons de la solitude, and Jeunes Filles en serre chaude, written between 1929 and 1934. According to one critic, Galzy did not initially approach lesbianism as an issue of gender but as a problem of the social imperative against expressing same-sex attraction:
The ambiguity that interests Jeanne Galzy concerns not gender but rather her characters' process of realizing that their feelings are indeed those of love for other women. Her protagonists have no place to situate themselves socially. Heterosexuality and motherhood are the only modes of love publicly available in their world. As a result it is not surprising Galzy sidles up to the issue of lesbian desire gradually.
L'Initiatrice features a single schoolteacher who develops a relationship with a younger student. In Les Démons, a father and his daughter (who already has an intimate female friend) fall in love with the same girl. Jeunes Filles is the most explicit of the three, and again a relationship develops between a student and her teacher, in a possible love that is ultimately frustrated. Later in her career she would again return to lesbian themes in the series of novels published as La surprise de vivre (1969-1976).
Galzy, like other women writers of her generation (the period between the two World Wars), has suffered from critical neglect; her work, as well as that of authors like Marguerite Audoux
Marguerite Audoux
Marguerite Audoux was a French novelist.- Biography :Marguerite Donquichote, who took her mother's name, Audoux, in 1895, was orphaned by age three, following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father...
and Catherine Pozzi
Catherine Pozzi
Catherine Marthe Louise Pozzi was a French poet and woman of letters.-Life:Catherine Pozzi was born in an aristocratic and bourgeois environment at the end of the 19th century, to Samuel Pozzi, surgeon and gynecologist, and Thérèse Loth-Cazalis...
, is relatively unknown today and often no longer in print.
Works
- Les Allongés, Ferenczi, 1923; GallimardÉditions GallimardÉditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
, 1975 - La Femme chez les garçons, F. Rieder, 1924
- La Grand rue (Main Street), Rieder, 1925
- Le Retour dans la vie, F. Rieder, 1926
- Sainte Thérèse d'Avila (Saint Teresa of AvilaTeresa of ÁvilaSaint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer...
), 1927 - Le retour dans la vie, 1929
- L'Initiatrice aux mains vides (The Initiator with the Empty Hands), Rieder, 1929
- Les Démons de la solitude (Demons of Solitude), 1931
- Jeunes Filles en serre chaude (Young Girls in the Hothouse), Gallimard, 1934
- Le Village rêve, Nouvelle Revue FrançaiseNouvelle Revue FrançaiseLa Nouvelle Revue Française is a literary magazine founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals, including André Gide, Jacques Copeau, and Jean Schlumberger...
(NRF), 1935 - Catherine de Médicis, NRF "Leurs figures", 1936
- Les Démons de la solitude (Demons of Solitude), Rieder, 1936
- Margot, reine sans royaume (Margo, Queen without a Realm), NRF "Leurs Figures", 1939
- Les Oiseaux des îles (The Birds of the Islands), NRF, 1941
- Pays perdu (Lost Country), NRF, 1943
- Diane de Joannis de Chateaublanc, 1943
- La cage de fer (The Iron Cage), NRF, 1946
- George Sand, JulliardÉditions JulliardÉditions Julliard is a French publishing house. It was founded in 1942 by René Julliard.René Julliard was known as a discoverer and publisher of talents, in particular Françoise Sagan and Jean d'Ormesson. After Julliard's death in July 1962, the managing director, Christian Bourgois, took over the...
, 1950 - La Femme étrangère (The Foreign Woman), 1950
- La Jeunesse déchirée (Torn Youth), 1952
- Celle qui vint d'ailleurs, 1958
- La Fille (The Girl), 1961
- La Surprise de vivre, 1969
- La Surprise de vivre, Gallimard NRF, 1969; Double Interligne, 1997
- Les Sources vives : la surprise de vivre II, NRF, 1971
- La Cavalière: la surpride de vivre III, NRF, 1974; Double Interligne, 2000
- Le Rossignol aveugle: la surprise de vivre IV, NRF, 1976
External links
- La Bouquinerie Photo and summaries. (in French)