Catherine Millet

Catherine Millet

Catherine Millet (born April 1, 1948 in Bois-Colombes ) is an expert on modern art and editor-in-chief of the art press . She became known through her autobiographical book The Sexual Life of Catherine M. , in which she describes her permissive sex life.

Life

Growing up in Bois-Colombes, she became a recognized expert in art criticism without any academic training . In doing so, she was guided by American formalistic art criticism. She has been married to the French photographer and writer Jacques Henric since 1991 , whom she met in 1972. The childless couple lives in the 12th arrondissement of Paris .

Autobiographical

According to her own statements, her books are factually descriptive and based on close observation. In 2001 her autobiographical book La vie sexual de Catherine M. (2001) was published; it was a scandalous success in many countries. The German translation ( The Sexual Life of Catherine M. ) made Millet known in German-speaking countries.

Millet's book is an emotionlessly precise account of her libertarian sex life, including group sex with several, mostly unknown partners of both sexes. In her liberal milieu she did not need to hide it; she described it as pleasant. The book gives insights into the French swinger scene from around 1970 to 2000. It was considered a widely read title in 2001 and was considered by some to be pornographic . Edmund White called it "the most explicit book on sex ever written by a woman".

In her autobiographical book Jealousy (original edition 2008), she described her deep crisis after discovering that her husband Jacques Henric was having an affair.

In Dreamlike Childhood she describes from her difficult childhood a. a. their perception of their parents' suffering and the division of their family. Her mother had a mental disorder and eventually committed suicide. She speaks openly of her loneliness and her fears; Her family was an "ember of hell". In the schoolyard she tried to turn around the unpleasant events, the everyday misery of her parents, and to make them interesting with jokes.

In January 2018, she interfered in the #MeToo debate with the text We defend the freedom to be a nuisance , published in Le Monde .

Works (in German)

• Contemporary art , Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2001 ISBN 3-404-93048-7
• The sexual life of Catherine M. , trans. by Gaby Wurster, Goldmann, Munich 2001; as a paperback ibid. 2003 ISBN 3-442-45543-X
• Dalí and I , trans. by Annalisa Viviani, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2008 ISBN 978-3-85881-204-9
• Jealousy , trans. by Sigrid Vagt . Hanser, Munich 2010 ISBN 978-3-446-23398-0
• Return to Bois-Colombes , original article, trans. by the Hg'in. In blue, white, red. France tells. Hg'in Olga Mannheimer. dtv, Munich 2017 ISBN 9783423261524 pp. 310–316
• Dreamlike childhood , trans. of Une Enfance de Rêve by Paul Sourzac. Secession Verlag für Literatur , Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-906910-12-3 .

literature

• Jacques Henric: The legend of Catherine M. Ullstein, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-25377-6
• Colette Sarrey: French women writers of the 80s and 90s and the écriture féminine . In: Wolfgang Asholt (Ed.): Interpretations. French Literature, 20th Century: Novel. Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86057-909-1 , p. 365ff.

Web links

• Literature by and about Catherine Millet in the catalog of the German National Library
• What Sarkozy does is great! , Interview from ZEIT on October 9, 2008
• Interview with Catherine Millet and pictures from the SZ on January 2, 2010

See also

• Sexual Revolution
• Neosexual revolution

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Faithless Love. The New York Times, January 31, 2010, accessed December 12, 2013 . 
2. ^ Leslie Camhi: Sex Obsession By the Numbers . June 22, 2002. Retrieved January 16, 2016. 
3. ^ The double life of Catherine M
4. ↑ My sexual life was pleasant , Ingeborg Harms on a conversation with Catherine Millet. In TIME LITERATURE No. 41, October 2017
5. ↑ Interview with Annabelle Hirsch, in: FAS No. 2, January 14, 2018, p. 50.