Pierre Guyotat
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Pierre Guyotat (9 January 1940 – 7 February 2020) was a French writer, best-known for his book Eden, Eden, Eden.
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Biography
In 1960, Guyotat wrote his first novel, Sur un cheval. He was called to Algeria in the same year. In 1962 he was found guilty of desertion and publishing forbidden material. After three months in jail he was transferred to a disciplinary centre. Back in Paris, he got involved in journalism, writing first for France Observateur, then for Nouvel Observateur.
In 1964, Guyotat published Ashby and in 1965, Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats. This book became the subject of various controversies, mostly because of numerous and various "men-on-men" sex scenes, as well as a nearly omnipresent obsession with complete nudity (mostly male).
In 1968, Guyotat became a member of the French Communist Party, which he left in 1971.
Eden, Eden, Eden came out in 1971 with a preface by Michel Leiris, Roland Barthes, Marguerite Duras, and Philippe Sollers. This book was banned from being publicized or sold to under-18s. A petition of international support was signed to get the ban lifted but it failed.
In 1973, Guyotat's play Bond en avant was performed. During the 70s Guyotat was involved in various diverse protests: for soldiers, immigrants, and prostitutes. In 1975 his novel Prostitution came out.
In 1977, he suffered a psychiatric illness.
In 1981 the ban on Eden, Eden, Eden was lifted. From 1984 to 1986, Guyotat gave a series of readings and performances of his work all over Europe.
In January 2000 he was involved in the reopening of the Centre Georges Pompidou at Beaubourg, contributing a reading of the first pages of Progéniture. In 2005, Sur un cheval was reedited and in April 2005 it was read on Radio France under Alain Ollivier's direction.
Bibliography
Biography
- 2005 Carnets de bord volume 1 1962-1969. Ligne-Manifeste.
- 2005 "Essai biographique" by Catherine Brun, Edtions Léo Scheer
Theatre
- 1972 Bond en avant, produced by Marcel Bozonnet and Alain Ollivier
- 1987 Bivouac, produced by Alain Ollivier
- 2005 Sur un cheval with Valérie Crunchant and Mireille Perrier. Reading directed by Alain Ollivier for France Culture
Novels
- 1961 Sur un cheval (Seuil, Paris).
- 1964 Ashby (Seuil, Paris).
- 1967 Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats (Gallimard, Paris).
- 1970 Eden, Eden, Eden (Gallimard, Paris).
- 1972 Littérature interdite (Gallimard, Paris).
- 1975 Prostitution (Gallimard, Paris).
- 1984 Le Livre (Gallimard, Paris) et Vivre (Denoël, Paris).
- 1995 Wanted Female, with Sam Francis (Lapis Press, Los Angeles).
- 2000 Progénitures (Gallimard, Paris) and Explications (Léo Scheer).
