There was also an American version, to which yours was compared in a university text.
This work was so close to my heart that I did not have the courage to read what the other translator was able to do. However, I completely defend the idea that several women can produce similar works, in reverse of a capitalist and patriarchal logic that would like to put us up against each other. What is funny is that my version was judged as very British, while I am American … I imagine that my studies, which focused on English literature of the 14th century, made me the ideal candidate for English editions.
In this regard, a word that has returned a lot during the discussion of the literary club organized by Miu Miu is “Girlhood”, which has no French translation.
It’s true … we could talk about the state of being a girl. A period of life. A state of being!
To the publication of Inseparablethe philosopher Paul B. Preciado wrote an article in Libérationentitled “The second sexuality of Simone de Beauvoir”. He presents the relationship of Andrée and Sylvie as a lesbian relationship. You prefer the word queer.
-Indeed ! It has since become a friend, but at the time, we didn’t know each other yet. So we never exchanged on this text. He obviously has political reasons to make these observations. He is not wrong, even if he expresses it in a stronger way than I would have dared to do it. But he has all the rights to do so: he has experienced lesbian relationships. He is much more involved than me, who is in a heterosexual relationship.
When it was released, The inseparable Rouvre a discussion on the porous border between reality and fiction. The work, in certain editions, was published with letters and photographs of Simone de Beauvoir and Élisabeth Lacoin – against the will of the author who presented this text as pure fiction. What do you think?
To tell the truth, that does not cause me any particular problem. I think it’s interesting to have these elements, from a documentary point of view. And then, difficult to deny that The inseparable Carries his life! It is not the only time she stages her relationship with Zaza. I think of Memoirs of a tidy young girlwhere it does so in autographic form. It is interesting to compare the treatment of this friendship between the two books. There are whole passages that are identical! Not just similar, identical! In my opinion, for Simone de Beauvoirtheir relationship went beyond all conventions. Besides, I like that in France the border is so vague between fiction and non-fiction. I think in particular of Neige Sinnowhich I met recently and which tells in Sad tiger What happened to him between 7 and 14 years old. And she won the Femina Prize! I appreciate that in France we say that we publish books, more than fiction or other. It influenced me a lot in my writing. I don’t like to decide between genres either. It is more interesting than considering them as a whole, a continuum.
Sinno snow – Sad tiger
Speaking of continuum … Can we envisage the relationship between Andrée and Sylvie under the light of the lesbian continuum, theorized by Adrienne Rich in Constraint to heterosexuality ?
