Michele Causse
Encyclopedia
Michèle Causse was a lesbian
theorist, translator and author.
region of Lot in France
.
She later taught in Tunisia
, and then lived for ten years in Rome
, where she studied Chinese.
After that she moved to Martinique
and then to the United States
before emigrating to Canada
.
In her last years, she lived in the southwest of France. Causse chose to end her life on her 74th birthday, in association with Dignitas
, an assisted dying group in Switzerland
.
, stating that "as long as a woman wishes to please a man, she is inauthentic... She does not have the integrity, the un-corruptibility that comes with not wishing to please.".
Causse was also critical of both the Women's Movement and of the concept of a homosexual movement, and stated "I am not a feminist, I am not a homosexual, I am a radical lesbian," She believed that "the women's movement is sustained by lesbians in every country; it is a lesbian movement, profoundly lesbian. She was also critical of the influence of patriarchy
on lesbians, claiming that lesbians were phallicized in the 1980s by the male homosexual movement.
, English
and Italian language
s. Her translations of works included texts by Herman Melville
, Gertrude Stein
, Ti-Grace Atkinson
, Djuna Barnes
, Jane Bowles
, Willa Cather
, Mary Daly
, Ignazio Silone
and Alice Munro
.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
theorist, translator and author.
Early life
Causse was born in MartelMartel, Lot
Martel is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France.The town has a distinctive sky-line with medieval towers. There is a museum containing items from Puy d'Issolud, a local Gallic archaeological site which has been identified as Uxellodunum, besieged by Julius Caesar in 51 BC.Henry...
region of Lot in 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...
.
She later taught in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, and then lived for ten years in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where she studied Chinese.
After that she moved to Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
and then to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
before emigrating to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
In her last years, she lived in the southwest of France. Causse chose to end her life on her 74th birthday, in association with Dignitas
Dignitas (euthanasia group)
Dignitas is a Swiss assisted dying group that helps those with terminal illness and severe physical and mental illnesses to die assisted by qualified doctors and nurses...
, an assisted dying group in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Theory
Canadian academic Clive Thompson has referred to Causse as a "writer of Radical lesbian texts" In her works, she is critical of heterosexualityHeterosexuality
Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...
, stating that "as long as a woman wishes to please a man, she is inauthentic... She does not have the integrity, the un-corruptibility that comes with not wishing to please.".
Causse was also critical of both the Women's Movement and of the concept of a homosexual movement, and stated "I am not a feminist, I am not a homosexual, I am a radical lesbian," She believed that "the women's movement is sustained by lesbians in every country; it is a lesbian movement, profoundly lesbian. She was also critical of the influence of patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
on lesbians, claiming that lesbians were phallicized in the 1980s by the male homosexual movement.
Translations
Causse translated between the FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Italian language
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
s. Her translations of works included texts by Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, Ti-Grace Atkinson
Ti-Grace Atkinson
Ti-Grace Atkinson is an American feminist author.Atkinson was born into a prominent Louisiana family. The "Ti" in her name reflects the Cajun or French language petite, for little....
, Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens...
, Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles, born Jane Sydney Auer , was an American writer and playwright.-Early life:Born into a Jewish family in New York, Jane Bowles spent her childhood in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. She developed tuberculous arthritis of the knee as a teenager and her mother took her to Switzerland...
, Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
, Mary Daly
Mary Daly
Mary Daly was an American radical feminist philosopher, academic, and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at Boston College, a Jesuit-run institution, for 33 years. Daly retired in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male...
, Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone
Ignazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...
and Alice Munro
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short-story writer, the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction, and a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize...
.
Multimedia
- La narrée navrée, lecture, Centenaire de Violette Leduc, video, ArrasArrasArras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
, 2007 - Une écrivain en terres occupées, film de Michel Garcia-Luna, DVD 47mn20, Ed. Lunaprod, 2005
- Corps de paroles, film of Suzanne Vertue and Dianne Heffernan, 37mn, Video-elles, Montreal, 1989
- A la lettre, cassette, Ed. Anne-Marie AlonzoAnne-Marie AlonzoAnne-Marie Alonzo, CM was a Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher.Born in Alexandria, Egypt, she immigrated to Quebec when she was twelve...
, Montréal
Articles
- Nomen est omen, post-face in "Défigures du soi", (inédit)
- Claude Cahun ou la mutante héroïque, Pour une anthologie des créatrices lesbiennes dans la Résistance, a cura di Paola Guazzo, Bagdam Espace Lesbien, avril 2008
- La narrée navrée, Centenaire de Violette Leduc, Revue Trésors à prendre, dir. Elisabeth Seys, 2007
- Inside Deep throat, commentary on the film Deep ThroatDeep Throat (film)Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film written and directed by Gerard Damiano and produced by Louis Peraino and starring Linda Lovelace ....
, in collaboration with Katy Barasc, Sysiphe, 2006 - Pourquoi les gays ne peuvent-ils pas être les alliés objectifs des lesbiennes ?, Les Pénélopes, 2002, Bagdam Espace Lesbien, 2006
- Noir dessein (lettre à Nicolas HulotNicolas HulotNicolas Hulot is the founder and president of the Fondation Nicolas-Hulot, an environmental group first created in 1990....
), Bagdam Espace Lesbien, 2006 - Le genre comme espace de contention, Université de Beyrouth, 2005
- A propos de Lynndie EnglandLynndie EnglandLynndie Rana England is a former United States Army reservist who served in the 372nd Military Police Company. She was one of eleven military personnel convicted in 2005 by Army courts-martial in connection with the torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during the occupation...
: Tragédie de la mimesis ou comment muer l'objet en sujet répréhensible, in collaboration with Katy Barasc, Sysiphe, 2004 - Qui a peur de Valerie SolanasValerie SolanasValerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist writer, best known for her attempted murder of Andy Warhol in 1968. She wrote the SCUM Manifesto, which called for male gendercide and the creation of an all-female society.-Early life:Solanas was born in Ventnor City, New Jersey, to Louis...
?, Bagdam Espace Edition, Toulouse, 2004, pages 19–35 - Hommage à Monique WittigMonique WittigMonique Wittig was a French author and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964...
, Tribute to Monique Wittig. Extrait du chapitre "La grande Pérégrine" in Voyages de la Grande Naine en Androssie (Ed. Trois, Montréal, 1993), numéro spécial, Labrys-études féministes, BrasiliaBrasíliaBrasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
-Montréal-Paris, septembre 2003 - Sur le voile, Sisyphe, 2003
- Une politique textuelle inédite : l'alphalecte in Lesbianisme et féminisme. Histoires politiques, Ed. L'harmattan, 2002
- L'universite : Alma mater ou père indigne ?, 2e Colloque international d'études lesbiennes: La grande dissidence et le grand effroi, Actes du colloque Espace lesbien n° 2, Bagdam Espace Edition, Toulouse, 2001