Richard Millet

Richard Millet (born March 29, 1953 in Viam in the Corrèze department ) is a French writer and editor .

Life

Richard Millet

Millet comes from the Corrèze department . He lived in Lebanon from the age of 6 to 14 . 1975-1976 he took part in the Lebanese civil war as a volunteer on the side of the Christian militia . In 1984 he founded the literary magazine Recueil , which was published until 1995. Millet was a teacher for 20 years before he decided to work only as a writer. In 1994 he received the Essay Prize of the Académie française for Le Sentiment de la langue (1986) . As a novelist and essayist , he describes his native Corrèze, where he has regularly returned to this day, in numerous novels and short stories, and in his essays he represents his special idea of literature .

In 2005 he took part in the French Book Fair in Beirut ( Salon du livre de Beyrouth ) together with Frédéric Beigbeder , Alain Decaux , Mohamed Kacimi , Daniel Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Thiollet .

Richard Millet is also the editor for Gallimard publishing house and was instrumental in the publication of Jonathan Littell's The Well- intentioned . This book was awarded the Prix ​​Goncourt in 2006 as was the 2011 Millet-edited L'Art français de la guerre by Alexis Jenni .

Millet is the father of two daughters, one of whom he had baptized in August 2002 in Viam , his birthplace.

Publications

Richard Millet's work revolves around the themes of time, death and language. Lust, evil and suffering are further themes that run through his entire work. In his works he combines religious references with a coarse language and thus connects the tradition of Catholicism and the sexual revolution of the 1960s. In terms of style, Millet sees himself in the tradition of the great French prose writers "from Bossuet to Claude Simon ".

Several of his novels are set in the village “Siom”, the literary counterpart of Viam , especially La Gloire des Pythre (1995), L'Amour des trois sœurs Piale (1998), Lauve le pur (2000), Ma vie parmi les ombres (2003), Tarnac (2010). Especially the Plateau de Millevaches , its landscape, its climate, its geographical location, the changes in the living conditions of its inhabitants over the course of the 20th century are essential elements in his stories.

Polemical essays

Richard Millet in November 2010

In 2005 Millet criticized in Le Dernier Écrivain ( The Last Writer ) and Harcèlement littéraire ( Literary Harassment ) a large proportion of contemporary French writers because, in his opinion, they did not know the rules of the French language or trampled them. He also denounced the predominance of literary sub-genres such as detective novels , fantasy and science fiction literature, which would have led to a change in social values. He thus resumed an older literary discussion: while Jorge Luis Borges claims that the detective novel is the worthy descendant of Greek tragedy , José Ortega y Gasset claimed that the psychological novel far surpasses all other literary genres in intensity. Millet took up this second position and contrasted what he saw as the lesser genres with the lively, rich and profound language of the novel.

In 2007, in Désenchantement de la littérature ( Disappointment of Literature ) , Millet again denounced the failures of contemporary authors and the loss of religious sentiment in Europe, arguing that France would no longer be France without its Christian identity. Both his literary and his religious standpoints aroused numerous critics in France. The writer Philippe Sollers , on the other hand, expressed his approval of some of the statements made by Désenchantement . Millet responded to the criticism in L'Opprobre ( The Shame ) in March 2008 .

In 2010 Richard Millet commented on what he called “postal literature” in L'Enfer du roman ( The hell of the novel ) and criticized the current predominance of the “tasteless and styleless international novel”, which he attributed to the loneliness of the writer and his search contrasted with his own style in the depths of his language.

In 2011 he developed his literary and social positions in Fatigue du sens ( The exhausted sense ) and Arguments d'un désespoir contemporain ( Arguments of a contemporary despair ). On June 11, 2011, he provoked the public with his statement on France Culture that someone who, in the third generation, still calls himself Mohammed something , is not French for him.

In 2012 he published the two writings De l'antiracisme comme terreur littéraire ( anti-racism as literary terror ) and Langue fantôme. Essai sur la paupérisation de la littérature suivi de Eloge littéraire d'Anders Breivik ( phantom language. Attempt on the impoverishment of language with a literary eulogy for Anders Breivik ). In the second of these two essays he tries to justify the Oslo murders with the multiculturalism within Norwegian society and with Breivik's loss of his own identity. Although he condemned the mass murder in July 2011, Millet praised Breivik's “formal perfection” as well as his “literary dimension”. A polemic developed about this in the French media , in which the question was also asked whether Millet's publication was still compatible with his responsibility as a publisher at Gallimard. After the Gallimard authors Jean-Marie Le Clézio and Annie Ernaux expressed their horror in French daily newspapers about Millet's remarks on Breivik, the publisher Antoine Gallimard finally agreed with Millet that he would only work as a freelance editor for his house from home will look after.

War experience

In his story La Confession négative (2009), Richard Millet describes through his literary alter ego how he became involved in the Lebanese civil war on the side of the Christian militias, less out of conviction than out of principle and without knowing the true background of the conflict. As the successor to André Malraux , he saw himself as a representative of France's historical mission in the world. For his view that only war can bring what the writer really wants, namely his own truth, he cites Ernest Hemingway , Ernst Jünger , William Faulkner , Curzio Malaparte or TE Lawrence .

Quote from La Confession négative :

• “I once had to kill men, including women, old people, maybe children too. And then I got old. We got old faster than the others. (…) I can talk about all of this fairly openly: those who threatened me with death in the event that I should tell certain things publicly are no longer among the living and I've been living in Europe again for a long time, where people no longer believe in anything and where the elms have died of diseases. "

Works (selection)

• Le Sentiment de la langue Vol. 1 - 3. La Table Ronde, Paris 1993 ISBN 978-2-7103-0576-7
• La Gloire des Pythre . POL, Paris 1995 ISBN 978-2-86744-481-4
  • Translated from Christiane Seiler: The pride of the Pythre family . Alexander Fest, Berlin 2001 ISBN 978-3-8286-0139-0
• L'Amour des trois sœurs Piale . Editions POL, Paris 1997 ISBN 978-2-07-040449-0
  • Translated by Christiane Seiler: The three sisters Piale . Alexander Fest, Berlin 1998 ISBN 978-3-8286-0054-6
• Lauve le pure . Éditions POL, Paris 2000. ISBN 978-2-86744-712-9
• Ma vie parmi les ombres . Gallimard, Paris 2003 ISBN 978-2-07-076544-7
• Le Dernier Écrivain . Fata Morgana, Saint Clément de rivière 2005 ISBN 978-2-85194-650-8
• Dévorations . Gallimard, Paris 2006 ISBN 978-2-07-078125-6
• Désenchantement de la litterature . Gallimard, Paris 2007 ISBN 978-2-07-078572-8
• L'Opprobre. Essai de demonologie . Gallimard, Paris 2008 ISBN 978-2-07-012066-6
• La Confession Negative . Gallimard, Paris 2009 ISBN 978-2-07-012413-8
• Tarnac . Gallimard, Paris 2010 ISBN 978-2-07-013036-8
• L'Enfer du roman. Reflections on the postlitterature . Gallimard, Paris 2010 ISBN 978-2-07-012969-0
• Fatigue you sens . Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Editions, Paris 2011 ISBN 978-2-36371-005-5
• De l'antiracisme comme terreur littéraire . Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Editions, Paris 2012 ISBN 978-2-36371-043-7
• Langue fantôme: Essai sur la paupérisation de la littérature suivi de Eloge littéraire d'Anders Breivik . Pierre-Guillaume de Roux Editions, Paris 2012 ISBN 978-2-36371-037-6
  • Translator: Silke Lührmann; Christa Nitsch: 3 texts from 2011/2012 in: Millet, Verlorene Posten. Writer, forest walker, partisan . Antaios, Schnellroda 2013 ISBN 978-3-944422-25-1 (including anti-racism: Terror against literature, pp. 187ff .; The writer as partisan, pp. 17ff .; The exhausted sense, p. 27ff .; literary eulogy on Anders Breivik , P. 171ff.) With essay about RM: Eisiger Wind by Torsten Hinz

literature

• Sylviane Coyault-Dublanchet: La Province en héritage. Pierre Michon, Pierre Bergounioux, Richard Millet (series: Histoire des idées et critique littéraire , volume 396). Droz, Geneva 2002, ISBN 2-600-00616-8 .
• Vincent Pélissier :, Autour du Grand Plateau (Pierre Bergounioux, Alain Lercher, Jean-Paul Michel, Pierre Michon, Richard Millet) . Éditions des Mille Sources, Tulle 2002, ISBN 978-2-909744-20-9 .
• Jean-Yves Laurichesse: Richard Millet: L'invention du pays . Éditions Rodopi, Amsterdam / New York 2007, ISBN 978-90-420-2185-3
• Laurent Bourdelas: Du Pays et de l'Exil - Un Abécédaire de la littérature du Limousin , Limoges, Les Ardents Éditeurs 2008, ISBN 978-2-917032-09-1
• Christian Morzewski (Ed.): Richard Millet: la langue du roman (Collection Études littéraires et linguistiques). Artois presses université, Lille 2008, ISBN 978-2-84832-080-9
• Jean-Yves Laurichesse (Ed.): Richard Millet (Littératures n ° 63/2010). Presses universitaires du Mirail, Toulouse 2011, ISBN 978-2-8107-0100-1

Magazines

• Le Matricule des ans. Le mensuel de la littérature contemporaine , issue n ° 30 Richard Millet , March-May 2000
• La Femelle du requin. Revue de littérature et cétacés , issue n ° 16, author: Richard Millet , autumn 2001
• La Nef , issue n ° 187 Le désenchantement ou la grâce. Entretien avec Richard Millet , November 2007
• Jochen Jung: legend of saints . In: Die Zeit , No. 23/2005; Review of The Pythre Family Pride

Web links

• Literature by and about Richard Millet in the catalog of the German National Library
• Critical documentation of the work of Richard Millet. auteurs.contemporain.info; accessed September 1, 2012
• Wolfram Schütte : Movement symphonies from the other side of time. Outline of a portrait of the French epic writer Richard Millet . TITEL culture magazine, February 23, 2004
• Rudolf Balmer: Racist Author: Song of Praise to Breivik . In: taz , August 29, 2012
• French literary scandal: outrage over Richard Millet's Breivik Eloge . Spiegel Online , August 30, 2012; accessed September 1, 2012
• Jürg Altwegg : The Millet Affair: Breivik's shadow . In: FAZ , September 7, 2012; Retrieved September 8, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ Notice d'autorité personne in the general catalog of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
2. ↑ "Richard M, le maudit" ( Richard M, the Cursed ) in: Le Point , January 22, 2009
3. ^ Prix ​​de l'essai . Academie française; Retrieved September 2, 2012
4. ^ L'Orient désert Gallimard, Paris 2009, pp. 160 and 195. ISBN 978-2-07-035985-1
5. ↑ Olivier Le Naire: "Le croisé et le rusé" ("The crusader and the wise guy "). In: L'Express , May 23, 2005; Conversation between Richard Millet and Frédéric Beigbeder .
6. ↑ Conversation with Philippe Sollers: "Quel avenir pour la Littérature?" (“What future for literature?”). In Le Magazine littéraire , December 2007
7. ↑ critical to this z. B. Raphaëlle Rérolle: Richard Millet, généalogie d'un malaise in Le Monde 2 , 6 June 2008.
8. ^ "Quelqu'un qui à la troisième génération continue à s'appeler Mohammed quelque chose, pour moi, ne peut pas être français". quoted from Anne Brigaudeau: "Eloge littéraire d'Anders Breivik" la nouvelle provocation de Richard Millet on france télévisions , 10 July 2012
9. ^ Nouvelle provocation de Richard Millet in: magazine-litteraire.com , August 21, 2012. Jérome Garcin: Breivik prix Goncourt? In: Le Nouvel Observateur , August 21, 2012
10. ↑ Raphaëlle Rérolle: L'apologie de Breivik par Richard Millet crée la polémique chez Gallimard . In: Le Monde , August 27, 2012. Antoine Gallimard: Millet a le droit de s'exprimer . In: L'Express , August 31, 2012. Jürg Altwegg : The Millet Affair: Breivik's shadow . In: FAZ , September 7, 2012
11. ^ JMG Le Clézio: La lugubre élucubration de M. Millet . In: Le Nouvel Observateur , on September 7, 2012
12. ^ Annie Ernaux: Le pamphlet fasciste de Richard Millet déshonore la littérature . In: Le Monde , September 11, 2012
13. ^ Breivik: Richard Millet démissionne du comité de lecture de Gallimard . In: Le Nouvel Observateur on September 14, 2012. Jürg Altwegg: Terror with an end. Gallimard disowned Richard Millet . In: FAZ , September 15, 2012
14. ↑ Quote on nn-plus-1.blogspot.com
15. ^ Richard Blin: «Pour Richard Millet, écrire ne consiste pas à bondir hors du rang des meurtriers (Kafka), mais à connaître leur sort. “La Confession négative” is a noire de soi experience, hantée par la face de l'ange dans l'ombre de la mort. " ("For Richard Millet, writing is not about jumping out of line with the murderers (Kafka), but about experiencing their fate." La Confession négative "is a black self-awareness that is tormented by the face of the angel in the shadow of death is. "). In: Le Matricule des Anges. Le mensuel de la littérature contemporaine , No. 100, February 2009; accessed September 2, 2012; s. a. the literary portrait of Millet by Edouard Launet: Richard Millet. Soldier perdu. Réac suicidaire, cet éditeur, confirmé chez Gallimard, fait l'éloge de Breivik, tueur norvégien et suprémaciste blanc . liberation.fr, September 5, 2012, which puts Millet's actual war experience into perspective; Retrieved September 8, 2012
16. ^ Translation from the original quotations in Richard Millet. Le croisé de la langue souveraine et d'un monde perdu . Wits nomades ; Retrieved September 2, 2012
17. ^ Report on the Breivik text in Der Spiegel, August 3, 2012