Irène Némirovsky

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Irène Némirovsky at the age of 25

Irène Némirovsky (born February 11, 1903 in Kiev , Russian Empire ; † August 17, 1942 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a writer who wrote in French.

Life

Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev as the daughter of a Jewish banker . Since her parents were not particularly interested in her, she grew up under the care of a French governess , so French became her second mother tongue . During the course of the Russian Revolution , the family fled and came to Paris via Finland and Sweden in 1919 . In the 1920s she regained wealth, so that Irène could lead a sheltered and luxurious life. She completed her literary studies at the Sorbonne with distinction. She started writing when she was 18.

In 1926 she married the likewise stateless Jew Michel Epstein, with whom she had two daughters, Denise (1929–2013) and Élisabeth (1937–1996). Her novel David Golder , published in 1929, made her known in one fell swoop. Her work was praised from all sides, including by anti-Semites like Robert Brasillach , which led to a discussion of her alleged anti-Semitism in the US magazine The New Republic in spring 2008. A German translation by David Golder appeared just one year after the French edition was published . Le Bal followed in 1930, and Danielle Darrieux made her first appearance in the film the following year .

Despite her recognition as a writer and her successful say in the literary world, she was not so well integrated into French society that she was freed from her stateless status and the naturalization that she was striving for made possible. Since she felt the anti-Semitism that was also widespread in France , she converted to Christianity on February 2, 1939 in the Sainte-Marie de Paris chapel, together with her daughters, but this did not affect her later fate.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II , Irène and her husband Michel brought the children to Issy-l'Évêque . You yourself stayed in Paris. After France signed the surrender , installed Pétain and drawn the line of demarcation , the anti-Semitic laws of the Vichy government forced the family to leave Paris. They faced the decision to either remain north of the demarcation line or to flee to their children. The parents now lived with their children in a hotel which also housed officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht. The following year they rented a large house in the village. Irène Némirovsky took long walks every day, read and wrote a lot. She agreed with the Albin Michel publishing house and the director of the anti-Semitic newspaper Gringoire to publish under the pseudonyms Pierre Nérey and Charles Blancat . But she suspected that she would not live much longer, and so she continued to work on her greatest work to date, Suite française .

Irène Némirovsky was arrested on July 13, 1942 and taken to the Pithiviers transit camp three days later . The next day she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau , where she died in the infirmary on August 17, completely weakened. Her husband was still trying desperately to obtain her release from the authorities. He wrote to Pétain, whereupon he was also deported. In October 1942 he was taken to Auschwitz and murdered in the gas chamber immediately upon arrival .

Irène Némirovsky had foreseen her deportation and that of her husband Michel and planned everything necessary in advance to get the children to safety. Julie Dumot, guardian of the two daughters, hid them in a monastery and later in caves. Both girls survived the war this way.

Rediscovery after 60 years

The two daughters Denise and Élisabeth survived the war with the help of friends by fling from hiding place to hiding in France until the liberation and the end of the war. When after the war they went to her grandmother, Fanny Némirovsky, who, feared and hated by Irène and had survived the occupation, to ask her for help in her large apartment in Nice, she is said to have sent her away and referred her to an orphanage. During this time the sisters kept their mother's last manuscript in a suitcase, but kept it only for sketches and notes. It was only after Elisabeth's death in 1996 that it was found that it was the unfinished novel Suite française . However, only two of the five planned parts have been completed.

The first part of the book describes the hasty flight of Parisian intellectuals and members of the bourgeoisie in view of the impending conquest of the city by the Germans in June 1940. The second part deals with the billeting of a German regiment in the small town of Bussy in 1941 and with the Relations between the occupiers and the local population. The focus is on the beginning love affair between a German officer and a French woman from better circles, in whose house he was quartered. The story ends with the withdrawal of the troops to Russia. The other parts should be titled Captivity, Battles, and Peace , although there are already specific notes on captivity . The novel was published in France in autumn 2004 and immediately received the prestigious Prix ​​Renaudot literary prize , which was awarded posthumously for the first time. The German translation was published in September 2005.

controversy

Several critics and commentators have raised questions about both Némirovsky's attitudes toward Jews, which she consistently portrayed negatively in her writings, and her involvement in anti-Semitic publications to advance her career. A review of her work, published on October 16, 2007 in the magazine La République des Livres (Eng: "The Republic of Books"), says the following:

“… The excitement comes from elsewhere. Because of what can definitely be described as Jewish self-hatred, as Theodor Lessing defined it as internalization of the rejecting gaze of others that sometimes leads to suicide, this actual prison from which she would like to evade, this shame that persecutes her and which she expresses through the vehemence of the description of her milieu, all things in which some would see a different form of anti-Semitism, Némirovsky appears like the novel version of the dramaturge Henry Bernstein . It is true that their Israelite personalities are, as they say, caricature, exaggerated, and often repulsive. These failed cosmopolitans, mostly in Biarritz , are often amoral upstarts who indulge in a cult of "money rules the world". “I saw them that way” she will say in support of her representations, which does not change the fact that they would not surprise if they came from the pen of Paul Morand , in his work France la doulce. It is also true that whatever Philipponnat and Lienhardt say, she wrote more often in the press of the extreme right at all times and even up to the time of the occupation, but under a pseudonym (Gringoire, Candide) than in that of the Left (Marianne); a Robert Brasillach congratulated her on accomplishing the miracle of having "depicted the immense Russian melancholy in a French form". It is ultimately true that she converted to Catholicism in the run-up to the war and dragged her husband and daughters into her wake in the mad hope of escaping the foul winds that rose as the dangers increased, when she did was utterly agnostic . A religiously based fear was alien to her. "

The introduction by Myriam Anissimov in the French edition of Suite française , which explains Irène Némirovsky's self-hatred for the situation the Jews faced in France, does not appear in the work and the paragraph in question has been removed from the English edition.

Works

  • David Golder . Translation by Dora Winkler. Fischer TB, Frankfurt 1997, ISBN 3-596-13383-1 (filmed in 1931).
  • The ball (original title: Le Bal . Bernard Grasset, Paris 1930). Translation and epilogue Claudia Kallscheuer. Zsolnay, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-05361-1 (also published as an audio book, read by Nina Hoss , 2006).
  • Suite française . Translation Eva Moldenhauer . Knaus, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8135-0260-0 .
  • La vie de Tchekhov. Editions Albin Michel, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-226-15847-2 .
  • The Kurilow case (original title: L'Affaire Courilof. Bernard Grasset, Paris 1933). Translation by Dora Winkler, btb, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-442-73614-5 .
  • The Kurilow and David Golder case: two novels , from the French by Dora Winkler, Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn 1995, ISBN 978-3-8218-4121-2 , series Die Andere Bibliothek .
  • Jesabel (Original title: Jézabel. Albin Michel, Paris 1936). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-8135-0282-1 .
  • The dogs and the wolves (original title: Les chiens et les loups. Albin Michel, Paris 1940). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8135-0283-1 .
  • Fire in autumn (original title: Les feux de l'automne. Albin Michel, Paris 1957). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8135-0317-3 .
  • Herbstfliegen (Original title: Les Mouches d'automne. Bernard Grasset, Paris 1931). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Manesse, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7175-4068-7 .
  • Lord of souls. (Original title: Le maître des âmes. Denoël, Paris 2005). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Luchterhand, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-630-62157-9 .
  • Passion (Original title: Chaleur du sang. Denoël, Paris 2007). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8135-0322-7 .
  • The Hardelot family (original title: Le Biens de ce monde. Albin Michel, Paris 1947). Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8135-0375-3 . (Also as an audio book, read by Iris Berben , 2010)
  • Intoxication. Translation by Eva Moldenhauer, with an afterword by Claudia Vidoni, Edition 5plus, Berlin 2011.
  • Master stories (original title: Dimanche). German translation by Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8135-0346-3 .
  • The sweet solitude (Original title: Le vin de solitude. Edition Albin Michel, Paris 1935). Translation by Susanne Röckel. Knaus, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8135-0377-7 .
  • The misunderstanding (original title: Le malentendu) . Translation by Susanne Röckel. Knaus, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8135-0467-5 .
  • For two (original title: Deux. Verlag Albin Michel). Translation by Susanne Röckel. Knaus, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-8135-0587-0 .
  • Paris Symphony. Stories (Original title: La Symphonie de Paris et autres histoires . Denoël, Paris 2012). Translation by Susanne Röckel, with an afterword by Sandra Kegel. Manesse, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7175-2412-0
  • The wounderchild. (L'enfant prodige) Translated by Irene Kafka . Series: Novellen, 60. Oesterreichisches Journal , Vienna without a year (1929), pp. 143–189

Opera

  • Oscar Strasnoy : Le Bal. Libretto: Matthew Jocelyn, based on the story of the same name by Irène Némirovsky. Premiere Hamburg State Opera, March 2010.

radio play

exhibition

  • 2010/2011: Irène Némirovsky. Il me semble parfois que je suis étrangère ... Mémorial de la Shoah , Paris, until March 8, 2011.

literature

  • Olivier Carpet: Irène Némirovsky, un destin en images. Éditions Denoël, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-207-10974-8 .
  • Alexandra König: "Pour redonner à la vie ce goût âpre et fort". Irène Némirovsky. Author from the thirties. In: Renate Kroll (Ed.): Gender studies in Romance literatures. Dipa, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-7638-0526-5 , pp. 95-113 (series: Siegener Frauenforschung 7).
  • Martina Stemberger: Irène Némirovsky. Phantasmagorias of Strangeness. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3313-2 (Series: Epistemata. Literary Studies, Vol. 566).
  • Olivier Philipponnat, Patrick Lienhardt: La vie d'Irène Nemirovsky: 1903–1942. Grasset-Denoel, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-246-68721-4 (the most comprehensive biography to date, short review in NZZ February 2, 2008, p. 31).
    • German: Olivier Philipponnat, Patrick Lienhardt: Irène Némirovsky: the biography. Translation Eva Moldenhauer. Knaus, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8135-0341-8 .
  • Alexandra König: Littérature feminine? French novelists of the 1930s. M-Press, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89975-512-X (series: Forum European Literature 3).
  • Wolfgang Schwarzer: Irène Némirovsky 1903–1942. In: Jan-Pieter Barbian (Red.): Vive la littérature! French literature in German translation. Ed. & Verlag Stadtbibliothek Duisburg , ISBN 978-3-89279-656-5 , p. 24.
  • Elke Schmitter : Irene Nemirowsky: The end of the world in a suitcase. In: passions. 99 women authors of world literature. Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-570-01048-8 , pp. 395-399.

Web links

Individual references, footnotes

  1. ^ Denise Epstein , The Daily Telegraph , April 28, 2013
  2. ↑ See R. Franklin on Némirowsky. - Answer from Philipponnat / Lienhardt on March 28, 2008.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - On dealing with the Jewish share of responsibility for anti-Semitism, Hannah Arendt's explanations in her work are elements and origins of total domination. Anti-Semitism, imperialism, total domination. (Piper, Munich 2001, pp. 36-43) instructive.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.tnr.com  
  3. ↑ a b c d Irène Némirovsky: Suite française. With a foreword by Myriam Anissimov. Éditions Denoël, Paris 2004, pp. 19-23.
  4. ^ Suite française, de Irène Némirovsky (German translation). Reviews on the Arlindo Correia website, archived from the original on November 6, 2013 ; accessed on August 17, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Joseph Hanimann: A discovery: Irène Némirovsky: My God, what is this country doing to me? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 17, 2010, p. 32, accessed on August 17, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Némirovsky, Irène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-speaking writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH August 17, 1942
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp