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{{Short description|French writer (1940–2020)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
'''Pierre Guyotat''' (9 January 1940 – 7 February 2020) was a French literary [[avant-garde]] writer who wrote fiction, non-fiction, and plays. He is best known for his 1967 novel ''Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats'' (''Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers''), about his experiences in the [[Algerian War]], and his 1970 novel ''[[Eden, Eden, Eden]]'', which was banned for its explicit content. Many of his novels are set in imaginary north African war zones. ''Idiotie'' (''Idiocy'', 2018) won the [[Prix Medicis]].

==Early life and education==
Pierre Guyotat was born on 9 January 1940 in [[Bourg-Argental]],<ref name=encyc>{{cite web | title=Guyotat, Pierre 1940- | website=Encyclopedia.com | date=13 January 2007 | url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/guyotat-pierre-1940 | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref> a small town in a mountainous area near [[Lyon]].<ref name=cooper>{{cite web | last=Cooper|first=Dennis | title=Spotlight on… Pierre Guyotat Eden Eden Eden (1970)|author-link=Dennis Cooper| website=DC's | date=21 December 2022 | url=https://denniscooperblog.com/spotlight-on-pierre-guyotat-eden-eden-eden-1970-3/ | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref><ref name=rfi>{{cite web | title='Pornographic' French writer Pierre Guyotat dies aged 80 | website=RFI | date=8 February 2020 | url=https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200208-pornographic-french-writer-pierre-guyotat-dies | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref> His father was a doctor, who aided local partisans during the [[Nazi occupation of france|occupation of France by the Nazis]] in World War II.<ref name=coma/>

Guyotat attended Catholic schools.<ref name=gallimard>{{cite web | title=Pierre Guyotat | website= Gallimard | date= 21 April 2006 | url=https://www.gallimard.fr/Contributeurs/Pierre-Guyotat | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref> He wanted to become a painter as a child, and admired [[Picasso]] and [[Matisse]], who were still alive then. He also wrote poetry and some prose when he was a school-aged teenager.<ref name=grau>{{cite journal| interviewer-first=Donatien |interviewer-last= Grau |first=Pierre |last=Guyotat|title=Pierre Guyotat | journal=[[Purple (magazine)|Purple]]| issue=14 | date=2010 | url=https://purple.fr/magazine/fw-2010-issue-14/pierre-guyotat/ | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>

== Career ==
Many of Guyotat's novels are set in imaginary north African war zones.<ref name=cooper/>

===1960s–1970s===
Guyotat wrote his first novel, ''{{ill|Sur un cheval|fr}}'', after fleeing to [[Paris]] after the death of his mother in 1958.<ref name=gallimard/>

He was called to [[Algeria]] in 1960 to fight in the [[Algerian War]].<ref name=gallimard/> He had sympathy for the Algerians and encouraged the Algerian conscripts to desert.<ref name=cooper/> In 1962 he was charged with complicity in [[desertion]], damaging the morale of the army, and was held incommunicado in an underground prison for three months without trial, then transferred to a disciplinary unit. Back in Paris, he got involved in journalism, writing first for ''[[France Observateur]]'', then for ''[[Nouvel Observateur]]''. In 1964, Guyotat published his second novel ''Ashby''.<ref name=gallimard/>

Between 1964 and 1975, Guyotat travelled extensively in the [[Sahara]]. In July 1967, he was invited to [[Cuba]], along with other writers, where he travelled to the [[Sierra Maestra]] with [[Fidel Castro]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1967, he published ''Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats'' (later released in English as ''Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers'').<ref name=tomb>{{cite book | last=Guyotat | first=P. | title=Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers | publisher=Creation | series=Creation modern classics | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-84068-062-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygUcAQAAIAAJ | access-date=30 July 2024 | page=}}</ref> Based on his ordeal as a soldier in the Algerian War, the book earned a cult reputation and became the subject of various controversies, mostly because of its omnipresent sexual obsessions and [[homoeroticism]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1968, Guyotat became a member of the [[French Communist Party]], which he left in 1971.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

''[[Eden, Eden, Eden]]'' was published in 1970, with a preface by [[Michel Leiris]], [[Roland Barthes]], and [[Philippe Sollers]].{{efn|[[Michel Foucault]]'s text was received late and therefore did not appear.}}<ref>Catherine Brun, ''Pierre Guyotat. Essai biographique'', Paris: Léo Scheer, 2005, pp. 220–221.</ref> This book was banned from being publicised or sold to minors.<ref name=rfi/> A petition of international support<ref name=gallimard/> was signed by [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Joseph Beuys]], [[Pierre Dac]], [[Jean Genet]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Joseph Kessel]], [[Maurice Blanchot]], [[Max Ernst]], [[Italo Calvino]], [[Jacques Monod]], and [[Nathalie Sarraute]]. [[François Mitterrand]] and [[Georges Pompidou]] tried to get the ban lifted but failed.<ref name=coma/> [[Claude Simon]] (who won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]] in 1985) resigned from the jury of the [[Prix Médicis]] after the prize wasn't awarded to ''Eden, Eden, Eden'',{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} missing out by a single vote.<ref name=rfi/> According to American critic Ron Slate, "Drawing from his Algerian experiences, the text comprises one continuous sentence (scored with backslashes, brackets, semicolons and commas), an intoned catalog of military atrocities, communal humiliations, unsated lust, and miscellanea running 192 pages".<ref name=coma/>

In 1973, Guyotat's play ''Bond en avant'' ("Leap Forward") was performed. During the 1970s he was involved in various protests: for soldiers, immigrants, and prostitutes. One of those cases was of great importance for him: he personally helped Mohamed Laïd Moussa, a 24-year-old Algerian ex-teacher who was accused and then found guilty of unintentional murder in [[Marseille]]. One week after he came out of jail, Moussa was murdered by a masked man; this event had a profound impact on Guyotat.<ref name=gallimard/>

In 1975 his novel ''Prostitution'' came out (which incorporated ''Bond en avant'' as the final monologue). From this point on, his novels deal with new [[Cant|argot]] and obscenity. They still explore the possibility of worlds structured by [[sexual slavery]] and transgression of fundamental taboos, but the French language is distorted, and ellipses of letters or words, [[neologism]]s, and phonetic transcriptions of Arabic utterances make it difficult to understand.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

In 1977, while working on ''Le Livre'' (1984) and ''Histoire de Samora Machel'' (unpublished), he suffered a [[psychiatric illness]].{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} In December 1981, he was admitted to an [[intensive care unit]] in a [[coma]], after neglecting his body for months.<ref name=gallimard/><ref name=cooper/>

===1980s===
Following the election of [[François Mitterrand]], France's first socialist president, in 1981, the ban on ''[[Eden, Eden, Eden]]'' was lifted.<ref name=rfi/>

From 1984 to 1986, Guyotat gave a series of readings and performances of his work all over Europe.<ref name=gallimard/>

In 1988 he lived in [[Los Angeles]] for a while to co-author the book, ''Wanted Female'', with the painter [[Sam Francis]].<ref name=gallimard/>

===2000s===
In January 2000 he was involved in the reopening of the [[Centre Georges Pompidou]] at Beaubourg in Paris, contributing a reading of the first pages of ''{{ill|Progénitures|fr}}''. The book was published later that year (Gallimard).<ref name=gallimard/>

In 2005, ''Sur un cheval'' was re-edited and in April 2005 it was read on [[Radio France]]. The ''Carnets de bord'' (vol. 1, 1962–1969) was published the same year, as well as Pierre Guyotat's first biography by Catherine Brun, ''Pierre Guyotat, essai biographique''.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

Between 2005 and 2010, Guyotat wrote and published three autobiographical books: ''[[Coma]]'' (2006), ''Formation'' (2007) and ''Arrière-fond'' (2010).{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

In 2011, he wrote ''Independence'', about his experience of the war, published for the centenary of the ''[[Nouvelle Revue Française]]''. The classes he gave at the [[University of Paris 8]] between 2001 and 2004 were published in 2011 under the title ''Leçons sur la langue française'' (éd. Léo Scheer).<ref>{{Cite web |author= |date=2011-12-15 |title=P. Guyotat, Leçons sur la langue française |url=https://www.fabula.org/actualites/48370/p-guyotat-lecons-sur-la-langue-francaise.html |access-date=2025-10-29 |website=www.fabula.org |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

''Coma'' was published in an English translation by Noura Wedell in July 2010.<ref name=coma/>

In 2014 he published ''{{ill|Joyeux animaux de la misère|fr}}'' (Gallimard).<ref name=gallimard/> An excerpt of the book was read at the [[IRCAM]] by actor and director [[Stanislas Nordey]], who brought the text to the stage in 2014.<ref>{{cite web | title=Stanislas Nordey | website=Les Archives du Spectacle | date=8 July 2014 | url=https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/p/2605-Stanislas-Nordey | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref> The second part of the book, ''Par la main dans les Enfers, Joyeux animaux de la misère II'', was published in the October 2016.<ref>{{cite web | last=Gavard-Perret | first=Jean-Paul | title=Par la main dans les Enfers, Joyeux animaux de la misère II, Pierre Guyotat | website=Accueil | url=http://www.lacauselitteraire.fr/par-la-main-dans-les-enfers-joyeux-animaux-de-la-misere-ii-pierre-guyotat | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>

==Recognition==
Guyotat was awarded the [[Prix de la langue française]] in 2010.<ref name=gallimard/><ref>{{cite web | title=Pierre Guyotat | website=Frieze | date=22 July 2024 | url=https://www.frieze.com/contributor/pierre-guyotat | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>

In 2018, Guyotat's ''Idiotie'' (''Idiocy'') won the [[Prix Medicis]].<ref name=rfi/> In the same year, he was awarded the [[Prix Femina spécial]] for the entirety of his work.<ref>{{cite web | last=Faerber | first=Johan | title=Pierre Guyotat : Idiotie, Prix Femina spécial 2018 et Prix Médicis 2018 | website=DIACRITIK | date=6 November 2018 | url=https://diacritik.com/2018/11/06/pierre-guyotat-idiotie-prix-femina-special-2018-et-prix-medicis-2018/ | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Prix Femina 2018 : Elisabeth de Fontenay et Pierre Guyotat récompensés | website=hachette.fr | date=5 November 2018 | url=https://www.hachette.fr/actualites/prix-femina-2018-elisabeth-de-fontenay-et-pierre-guyotat-recompenses | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>

In September 2020, an international project entitled ''Eden Eden Eden at 50'' was organised by scholar, writer and museum executive Donatien Grau. The event, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Guyotat's book, comprised 50 readings around the world, by a diverse group of creatives, including artists [[Paul McCarthy]] and [[Kaari Upson]]; writer [[Chris Kraus (American writer)|Chris Kraus]]; and rapper [[Abd al Malik (rapper)|Abd al Malik]]. It also included a new film by Australian filmmaker [[Amiel Courtin-Wilson]]; a performance by artist [[Michael Dean (artist)|Michael Dean]]; a reading by [[Philippe Parreno]] in [[Berlin]]; and a concert by [[Scott McCulloch (writer)|Scott McCulloch]] in [[Tbilisi]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Why Pierre Guyotat's Work Is More Relevant Now Than Ever | website=AnOther | date=16 September 2020 | url=https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/12797/pierre-guyotat-ever-eden-eden-eden-donatien-grau | access-date=8 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-15 |title=Donatien Grau's Homage to Pierre Guyotat's Eden, Eden, Eden on its 50th Anniversary {{!}} |url=https://flash---art.com/2020/09/donatien-grau-homage-eden-eden-eden/ |access-date=2025-10-29 |website=Flash Art |language=en-US}}</ref>

Many of his works have been performed on stage.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pierre Guyotat | website=Les Archives du Spectacle | date=9 January 1940 | url=https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/p/1750-Pierre-Guyotat | language=fr | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Pierre Guyotat tombe.jpg|thumb|Guyotat's grave at the [[Père-Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris]]
In 2004, Guyotat donated his manuscripts to the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] (French National Library).

He died on 7 February 2020.<ref name=rfi/>

== Bibliography ==
===Fiction===
*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).
*1975 ''Prostitution'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*1984 ''Le Livre'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*1995 ''Wanted Female'', with [[Sam Francis]] (Lapis Press, Los Angeles).
*2000 ''Progénitures'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*2014 ''{{ill|Joyeux animaux de la misère|fr}}'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*2016 ''Par la main dans les enfers: Joyeux animaux de la misère II'' (Gallimard, Paris)

===Non-fiction===
*1972 ''Littérature interdite'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*1984 ''Vivre'' (Denoël, Paris).
*2000 ''Explications'' (Léo Scheer, Paris).
*2005 ''Carnets de bord, volume 1 1962-1969'' (Ligne-Manifeste).
*2006 ''Coma'' (Mercure de France, Paris).
*2007 ''Formation'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*2010 ''Arrière-fond'' (Gallimard, Paris).
*2011 ''Leçons Sur la Langue Française'' (Léo Scheer, Paris).
*2013 ''Pierre Guyotat : les grands entretiens d'Artpress'' (IMEC/Artpress, Paris).
*2018 ''Idiotie'' (Grasset et Fasquelle, Paris).

=== Theatre ===
*1972 ''Bond en avant'', produced by [[Marcel Bozonnet]] and {{ill|Alain Ollivier|fr}}
*1987 ''Bivouac'', produced by Alain Ollivier
*2005 ''{{ill|Sur un cheval|fr}}'', with [[Valérie Crunchant]] and [[Mireille Perrier]]. Reading directed by Alain Ollivier for [[France Culture]]

===English translations===
*"Eden, Eden, Eden" transl. by [[Graham Fox]], reworked and revised, (London, Vauxhall & Company, 2017, series editors [[Paul Buck]] & [[Catherine Petit]])<ref>{{cite web |title=Eden, Eden, Eden - Vauxhall&Company |url=https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22456256146&searchurl=sortby%3D20%26vci%3D1266829&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title10}}</ref>
*"Body of the Text," transl. by [[Catherine Duncan]], published in ''Polysexuality'' (Los Angeles, Semiotext(e), 1981).
*''Eden, Eden, Eden'', transl. by Graham Fox (London, Creation Books, 1995).
*''Prostitution: An Excerpt'', transl. by [[Bruce Benderson]] (New York, Red Dust, 1995).
*''Tomb for 500,000 soldiers'', transl. by Romain Slocombe (London, Creation Books, 2003).<ref name=tomb/>
*"Art is what remains of History," transl. by Paul Buck and Catherine Petit, published in ''Frozen Tears II'' (Birmingham, ARTicle Press, 2004).<ref>{{cite interview| url=http://www.frozentears.co.uk/frozen_tears_2/texts/guyotat.pdf |first=Pierre |last=Guyotat |title=Art is what remains of history|interviewer-first =Tatiana |interviewer-last =Kondratovitch}}</ref>
*''Coma'', transl. by Noura Wedell (Los Angeles, [[Semiotext(e)]], 2010).<ref name=coma>{{cite web | title=On Coma by Pierre Guyotat, translated from the French by Noura Wedell | website=On the Seawall|first= Ron|last= Slate | date=13 January 2012 | url=https://www.ronslate.com/on-coma-by-pierre-guyotat-translated-from-the-french-by-noura-wedell-semiotexte-mit-press/ | access-date=30 July 2024}}</ref>
*''Independence'', transl. by Noura Wedell (Los Angeles, Semiotext(e), 2011).
*''In the deep'', transl. by Noura Wedell (Los Angeles, Semiotext(e), 2014).
*{{cite book |title=Idiocy |date=2025-10-28 |publisher=New York Review of Books |isbn=978-1-68137-920-3 |publication-place=New York |translator=Peter Behrman de Sinety }} <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-29 |title=Destroy Humanism |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/destroy-humanism |access-date=2025-10-29 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''Pierre Guyotat: Essai biographique'', by Catherine Brun (Editions Leo Scheer, 2005)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170920192902/http://bombmagazine.org/article/2000051/pierre-guyotat Interview with Noura Wedell] in ''[[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]]'' magazine
*{{cite web | title=Interview with Pierre Guyotat | website=The White Review | date=24 April 2020 | url=https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-pierre-guyotat/ }}

== External links ==
* [https://www.cabinet.uk.com/pierre-guyotat-1 Two exhibitions at the Cabinet Gallery in London] (photos and text): ''Pierre Guyotat: Written Matter'', 27 April - 27 May 1995; and ''Pierre Guyotat Writings, drawings, recordings'' Cabinet Gallery, London, 29 March - 29 April 2017
*[http://parislike.com/EN/orange-peel-pierre-guyotat-video.php Interview with Dominiq Jenvrey] (Video, 27m, subtitled in English), on [[ParisLike]]
*[http://www.ubu.com/sound/guyotat.html Recordings of Guyotat reading his work (in French)] hosted by [[UbuWeb]] (audio, 6m)
* [https://datacide-magazine.com/earth-a-run-red/ Readers-Report on Guyotat's ''Tomb for 500,00 Soliders'' by Howard Slater]

{{Prix Médicis}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guyotat, Pierre}}
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:2020 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century French male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century French novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century French male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century French novelists]]
[[Category:French erotica writers]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:People from Loire (department)]]
[[Category:Prix Décembre winners]]
[[Category:Prix Médicis winners]]
[[Category:20th-century French male novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century French male novelists]]

Pierre Guyotat - Revision history

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