Djuna Barnes

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Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes (born June 12, 1892 in Cornwall on Hudson , New York , † June 18, 1982 in New York City ) was an American writer and illustrator . She is one of the most important authors of literary modernism.

Life

Barne's childhood was marked by life on a farm in a rural New York state and the sexual abuse by her father and grandmother, which was later incorporated into her literary works. Both were extreme free thinkers who also refused schooling for the child. She was tutored by her father. Her grandmother was also an ambivalent figure for her: despite the abuse, which was perceived as traumatic, she was fascinated by her strong personality and saw her as a role model in certain aspects.

At the age of 19, Barnes moved to the Bronx to paint, but also worked as a freelance journalist. From 1912 she published regularly in New York daily newspapers. She soon moved to the bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village , where she met the theater critic Courtenay Lemon, with whom she was married for only three years. During this time she published her first volume of poetry and some plays in which she also acted.

In 1919 she moved to Paris and soon found her way into the intellectual and lesbian circle around Natalie Clifford Barney . From 1923 on, she lived with Thelma Wood , but had other love affairs with men and women in addition to this relationship. However, the fact that Wood was also constantly having affairs hurt her greatly. She drank too much. In 1928 her novel Ryder and the Ladies Almanack appeared , in which she makes fun of Barney and her friends. After separating from Wood in 1931, Barnes lived with Peggy Guggenheim and worked on her most important novel, Nightwood .

From 1939 on, Barnes lived again in New York, but published only a few texts. The welfare and contributions from the collector and patron Peggy Guggenheim kept her afloat. She had few social contacts and lived alone. In 1943, Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery hosted an exhibition of her paintings and drawings. It was the only public recognition she received as a visual artist. In 1959 her last work, The Antiphon, was published .

In 1959 she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

plant

Her works are characterized by an ironic, sometimes grotesque style. Barnes dealt with life as a woman in her writings, but never allowed herself to be pushed into the role of a feminist. Her figures are banal everyday people - exaggerated. Even in her day, her works were considered too special to be bestsellers .

Ladies Almanack

Advert for Ladies Almanack (1928)

The novel Ladies Almanack , published anonymously in 1928, is an erotic parody of the lesbian circles in Paris in the 1920s. The book is stylistically based on the 17th and 18th centuries, but also on the play on words by Joyce , whom Barnes greatly admired. The main character, Dame Evangeline Musset, is strongly reminiscent of Natalie Barney and her “literary salon”. The book was rejected by the US publishers and therefore printed in Paris. Because of the homoerotic sequences, it was not allowed to be imported into the USA.

Ryder

Barne's first novel, Ryder , was also published in 1928. In it she describes a family very similar to her own and the neurotic relationships within that family. Linguistically, the novel is reminiscent of the English literature of the early modern period.

Nightwood

The second novel, Nightwood, is considered to be her most important book. Using the chaotic relationships between five homosexual and heterosexual characters, she processes her broken relationship with Thelma Wood. Nightwood is set in Paris between the wars.

The antiphon

The Antiphon is Barne's last major play and the only one of her writings that is worth mentioning after Nightwood . This is about an incest relationship , in contrast to Ryder, however, the focus here is not on the father-daughter relationship, but on the relationship with the mother.

Books

A Night Among the Horses (1929)
  • The Book of Repulsive Women : 8 Rhythms and 5 Drawings, Poems 1915
  • Three from the Earth , play 1919
  • Kurzy from the Sea , play 1920
  • An Irish Triangle , drama 1921 (German: An Irish Triangle, 1991)
  • She Tells Her Daughter , played in 1923
  • A Book , 1923
  • Ladies Almanack showing their Signs and their Tides; their moons and their changes; the seasons as it is with them; their Eclipses and Equinoxes; as well as a full record of diurnal and nocturnal distempers, written & illustrated by a lady of fashion . 1928
    • Ladies Almanac . Translation of Karin Kersten . Afterword Brigitte Siebrasse. Berlin: Wagenbach, 1986
  • Ryder , Roman 1928 (German Ryder, 1986)
  • A Night Among the Horses , Stories 1929 (German: A Night With the Horses, 1961)
  • Nightwood , Roman 1936. (Ger. Nachtgewächs, 1959)
  • The Antiphon , drama 1958 (German Antiphon, 1986)
  • Spillway , 1962
  • Selected Works , 1962
  • Vagaries Malicieux , 1974
  • Creatures in an Alphabet , children's book 1982
  • Smoke and Other Early Stories , 1982
  • The night in the woods. Short stories. German 1984
  • Passion. Nine stories. German 1985
  • Portraits. German 1985
  • New York. Stories and reports from a metropolis. German 1987
  • Paris, Joyce, Paris. German 1988
  • Go to the dogs. The Dove. An Irish triangle. Three pieces. German 1991
  • The perfect murder. German 1993
  • Seducers everywhere. German 1994
  • Amore! or love run. German 1996
  • As long as there are women, how should something go wrong? German 1997

literature

Web links

Commons : Djuna Barnes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrea Weiss: Paris was a woman . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2006, p. 153 f.
  2. ↑ Members: Djuna Barnes. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed February 14, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Barnes, Djuna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Cornwall on Hudson , New York (State)
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1982
Place of death New York City