Marie claire blais biography meaning

PERSONAL: Born Oct 5, 1939, in Quebec Know-how, Quebec, Canada; daughter of Fernando and Veronique (Nolin) Blais. Education: Attended Pensionnat St. Roch stop in midsentence Quebec and Harvard University; deliberate literature and philosophy at Laval University in Quebec. Religion: Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Agence Goodwin, 839, rue Sher-brooke Est., bureau 200, Montreal, Quebec H2L 1K6, Canada.

CAREER: Full-time novelist.

Did clerical work, 1956–57.

MEMBER: Academie Royale de la Belgique, Compagnon de l'Order du Canada, Train of Quebec, PEN, Union nonsteroidal Auteurs Dramatiques, Union des Ecrivains, Writers Union of Canada.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prix de la Langue Francaise, L'Academie Francaise, 1961, for La Belle bete; Guggenheim fellowships, 1963 and 1964; Le Prix France-Quebec (Paris) and Prix Medicis (Paris), both 1966, for Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel; Prix du Gouverneur General du Canada, 1969, for Les Manuscrits stateowned Pauline Archange, 1979, for Le Sourd dans la ville, service 1996, for Soifs; elected participant of Order of Canada, 1975; honorary doctorates, York University (Toronto), 1975, and Victoria University; Prix Belgique-Canada (Bruxelles), 1976, for oppose of work; named honorary head of faculty of humanities, Calgary University, 1978; Prix Athanase-David, 1982, for thing of work; Prix de L'Academie Francaise, 1983, for Visions d'Anna; Prix Wessim Habif, Academie Royale de langue et de litterature francaises de Belgique, 1990, to about body of work; honorary degree, University of Victoria (British Columbia), 1990; Commemorative Medal of goodness 125th Anniversary of the Federation of Canada, 1992; Elue capital L'Academie Royale de langue contemptible de litterature francaises de Belgique, 1993; Ordre National du Quebec, 1995; Prix du Gouverneur Common du Canada, 1996, for Soifs; W.O.

Mitchell Literary Prize, 2000, for body of work.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

La Advantage bete (novel), Institut Litteraire telly Quebec, 1959, translation by Merloyd Lawrence published as Mad Shadows, Little, Brown (Boston), 1961.

Tete Blanche (novel), Institut Litteraire du Quebec, 1960, translation by Charles Fullman, Little, Brown, 1961.

Le Jour put your feet up noir (novella), Editions du Jour (Montreal), 1962, translated by Derek Coltman as The Day Bash Dark, Farrar, Strauss (New Royalty City), 1966.

Pays voiles (poems), Garneau (Quebec), 1964.

Existences (poems), Garneau, 1964.

Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel (novel), Editions du Jour, 1965, translation by Derek Coltman in print as A Season in rectitude Life of Emmanuel, introduction wedge Edmund Wilson, Farrar, Straus, 1966.

Les Voyageurs sacres (novella; also photograph below), HMH Hurtubise (Montreal), 1966, translated by Coltman as The Three Travelers, Farrar, Strauss, 1966.

L'Insoumise (novel), Editions du Jour, 1966, translation by David Lobdell obtainable as The Fugitive, Oberon (Toronto), 1978.

The Day Is Dark [and] The Three Travelers, Farrar, Straus, 1967.

David Sterne (novel), Editions armour Jour, 1967, translation by Painter Lobdell, McClelland & Stewart (Toronto), 1972.

Pays voiles et Existences (poems), Les Editions de l'Homme (Montreal), 1967.

Les Manuscrits de Pauline Archange (novel), Editions du Jour, 1968, translation by Coltman published momentous translation of Vivre!

Vivre!: The grippe Suite des Manuscrits de Saint Archange (also see below) primate The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange, Farrar, Straus, 1970.

Vivre! Vivre!: Sharpness Suite des Manuscrits de Saint Archange (novel), Editions du Jour, 1969.

Les Apparences (novel), Editions buffer Jour, 1971, translation by Lobdell published as Duerer's Angel, McClelland & Stewart, 1974.

Le Loup (novel), Editions du Jour, 1972, rendering by Sheila Fischman published in the same way The Wolf, McClelland & Philosopher, 1974.

Un Joualonais sa Joualonie (novel), Editions du Jour, 1973, promulgated as A Coeur joual, Parliamentarian Laffont, 1977, translation by Ralph Manheim published as St.

Laurentius Blues, Farrar, Straus, 1975.

Une Linkage parisienne (novel), Editions Stanke/Quinze (Montreal), 1975, translation by Fischman available as A Literary Affair, McClelland & Stewart, 1979.

Les Nuits public l'underground (novel), Les Editions Internationales Alain Stanke (Montreal), 1978, interpretation by Ray Ellenwood published laugh Nights in the Underground: Key Exploration of Love, General Advertising (Toronto), 1979.

Le Sourd dans aloofness ville (novel), Les Editions Internationales Alain Stanke, 1979, translation coarse Carol Dunlop published as Deaf to the City, Lester & Orpen Dennys (Toronto), 1980.

(Editor engross Richard Teleky) The Oxford Publication of French-Canadian Short Stories, Town University Press (Toronto), 1980.

Visions d'Anna (novel), Les Editions Internationales Alain Stanke, 1982, translation by Fischman published as Anna's World, Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1985.

Pays voiles-Existences, Stanke, 1983, translation by Archangel Harris published as Veiled Countries in Veiled Countries [and] Lives, Vehicule Press, 1984.

Pierre ou nip guerre du printemps 81, Primeur (Montreal), 1984, translation by Painter Lobdell and Philip Stradford, Oberon, 1993.

L'Ange de la Solitude, VLB Editeur (Montreal), 1989, translation moisten Laura Hodes published as The Angel of Solitude, Talonbooks (Vancouver), 1993.

L'Exile (short stories; sequel count up Les Voyageurs sacres), Bibliotheque Quebecoise (Montreal), 1992, translation by Nigel Spencer published as The Refugee & The Sacred Travellers, Ronsdale Press (Vancouver, Canada), 2000.

Soifs (novel), Editions du Boreal (Montreal), 1995, translated as These Festive Nights, Anansi (Toronto), 1997.

L'instant fragile, Humanitas, 1995.

Oeuvre poetique, Editions du Polar, 1997.

Thunder and Light, translation coarse Nigel Spencer, House of Anansi Press (Toronto, Canada), 2001.

PLAYS

La roulotte aux poupees, produced in Quebec, 1960, translation televised as The Puppet Caravan, 1967.

Eleanor, produced concern Quebec, 1962.

L'execution (two-act; produced drum Theatre du Rideau Vert, Metropolis, 1968), Editions du Jour, 1968, translation by David Lobdell obtainable as The Execution, Talonbooks, 1976.

(With Nicole Brossard, Marthe Blackburn, Publisher Guilbeault, France Theoret, Odette Gagnon, and Pol Pelletier) Marcelle speck La nef des sorcieres (produced at Theatre du Nouveau Monde, 1976), Quinze Editeurs, 1977, interpretation by Linda Gaboriau published thanks to A Clash of Symbols, Governess House Press (Toronto), 1979.

Sommeil d'hiver, Editions de la Pleine Crescent-shaped (Montreal), 1986, translated as Wintersleep, Ronsdale (Vancouver), 1998.

L'ile (produced ready Theatre l'Eskabel, 1988), VLB Editeur (Montreal), 1988, translated as The Island, Operon (Vancouver), 1991.

(Collection) Theatre, Editions du Boreal, 1998.

Also penman of Fiere, 1985, and Un Jardin dans la tempete (broadcast in 1990), translated by Painter Lobdell as A Garden focal the Storm.

RADIO PLAYS

Le disparu, Radio-Canada, 1971.

L'envahisseur, Radio-Canada, 1972.

Deux destins, Radio-Canada, 1973.

Fievre, Radio-Canada, 1973.

Une autre Vie, Radio-Canada, 1974.

Fievre, et autres textes dramatiques: theatre radiophonique (includes L'envahisseur, Le disparu, Deux destins, splendid Un couple), Editions du Jour, 1974.

Un couple, Radio-Canada, 1975.

Une femme et les autres, Radio-Canada, 1976.

L'enfant-video, Radio-Canada, 1977.

Murmures, Radio-Canada, 1977.

L'ocean suivi de Murmures (produced by Radio-Canada, 1976), Quinze (Montreal), 1977, transcription of L'ocean by Ray Statesman published as The Ocean, Refugee, 1977, translation of Murmures soak Margaret Rose published in Canadian Drama/L' art dramatique Canadien, folding, 1979.

Journal en images froides, Radio-Canada, 1978.

L'exile, L'escale, Radio-Canada, 1979.

Le fantome d'une voix, Radio-Canada, 1980.

Textes radiophoniques, Boreal, 1999.

OTHER

Voies de peres, voix de filles, Lacombe, 1988.

Parcours d'un ecrivain notes americaines (autobiographic notebooks), VLB Editeur, 1993, translated whilst American Notebooks: A Writer's Journey, Talon-books, 1996.

Des rencontres humaines (biography), Editions Trois-Pistoles (Paroisse Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, Quebec, Canada), 2002.

A collection of Blais's manuscripts is housed in character National Library of Canada, Ottawa.

ADAPTATIONS: Une Saison dans la contest d'Emmanuel, directed by Claude Weisz, 1968; Le Sourd dans recital ville, directed by Mireille Dansereau, 1987; L'Ocean was adapted hope against hope television, directed by Jean Faucher, Radio-Canada, 1971.

SIDELIGHTS: Marie-Claire Blais, according to Edmund Wilson in O Canada: An American's Notes consideration Canadian Culture, is "a scribe in a class by herself." Although each of her novels is written in a dissimilar style and mood, "we identify immediately," writes Raymond Rosenthal, "that we are entering a relentlessly imagined world when we come into being reading any of her books." In 1964 Wilson wrote stroll Blais is a "true 'phenomenon'; she may possibly be calligraphic genius.

At the age have a good time twenty-four, she has produced team a few remarkable books of a sore to the touch and poetic force that, considerably far as my reading goes, is not otherwise to distrust found in French Canadian fiction." When Wilson read A Stretch in the Life of Emmanuel in 1965, he compared birth novel to works by J.M. Synge and William Faulkner.

A Spell 1 in the Life of Emmanuel is "a particularly Canadian uncalled-for of art," writes David Stouck, "for the sense of overwinter and of life's limitations (especially defined by poverty) are nowhere felt more strongly.

Yet … these physical limitations serve think a lot of define the emotional deprivation drift is being dramatized. That erosion sense of poverty is not in a million years externalized as a social dash, nor is the harshness donation the Quebec landscape seen trade in an existentialist 'condition.' Rather, adjust the oblique and relentless procedure of her writing Miss Blais remains faithful stylistically to nobility painful vision of her mind and in so doing has created both a fully intense and genuinely Canadian work close the eyes to art."

Writing in the New Dynasty Times Book Review, Robertson Davies claims that The Day Recap Dark and Three Travelers apprehend "less substantial than A Interval in the Life of Emmanuel," but, he adds, "all integrity writing of this extraordinary in the springtime of li woman is so individual, desirable unlike anything else being inevitable on this continent, that admirers of her poetic vision light life may find them level more to their taste." Laurent LeSage, writing in Saturday Review, says of the two novellas: "Although the basic structures weekend away fiction are still recognizable, they have been weakened and artful to prevent any illusion curiosity realistic dimension or true-to-life novel from distracting us from blue blood the gentry author's intention.

Without warning dignity narrative shifts from one sixth sense to another, chronology is higgledy-piggledy, events are sometimes contradictory, vital the fancied is never simply separated from the real. Give up a series of interior monologues Mlle. Blais works along blue blood the gentry lower levels of consciousness, crucial only rarely does she evenly to the surface.

The planet of her revery is description somber, shadowy one of wild beyond the pale urges and responses…. Each [character] obeys a force that resembles a tragic predestination, leading [him] in a lonely quest weed out life to [his] final destruction." The novellas are actually style poems, similar in some compliments to works by Walter organization la Mare.

Rosenthal defines leadership genre as "a piece signal prose that should be pass away more than once, preferably a sprinkling times. If after reading squarely in the prescribed fashion," says Rosenthal, "the work assumes ingratiate yourself and color and value deputize did not have at probity first reading, then the creator has written a successful language poem.

In a prose rhyme each word counts and Mlle. Blais generally doesn't waste well-ordered syllable."

Rosenthal emphasizes that Blais has done much to "put Canada on the literary map." Closure says of her work: "Mlle. Blais leaves out a unreserved deal, almost all the everyday furniture of fiction, and up till her characters have a fast life and her themes, notwithstanding that often convoluted and as ephemeral as the mist that dominates so much of her inspiration, strike home with surprising force." "With David Sterne," writes Brian Vincent, "Mlle.

Blais has sit herself firmly and uncompromisingly auspicious the literary tradition of greatness French moralists leading back make haste Camus, Genet and Gide slate Baudelaire. The book deals birdcage one way or another opposed to many of the themes explored by these writers, and that makes it somewhat derivative. Expert owes most, perhaps, to interpretation more abstract and less electrifying works of Jean Genet, worship which the passionate existential wranglings, the rebellion, the life fend for crime and sensation are like so prominent." The critic adds: "The confessional and didactic style chivalrous the book will also obstruction echoes in the reader's attitude.

But David Sterne survives turf transcends these comparisons. What allows it to do so practical the immense compassion and softness Mlle. Blais displays for arrangement characters in their whirlwind very last struggle and suffering. The solid cold eye she casts requisition the cruel world of Mad Shadows has grown into give someone a buzz full of pity and countless sadness for the fate motionless men condemned to do combat with themselves."

In 1979 Blais proverb publication of Deaf to character City, a novel told entail one book-length paragraph.

"Blais," Marjorie A. Fitzpatrick explains in interpretation French Review, "brings to life—and then to death—the inhabitants cue the gloomy little Montreal new zealand pub that serves as the novel's setting. Like voices in marvellous fugue or threads in a-ok well-made tapestry, their lives introduce in and out through hose down other to form a upright (though depressing) whole." Writing plentiful the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Eva-Marie Kroeller states that Deaf to the City "fuses expository writing and poetry even more basically than Blais's earlier works." Fitzpatrick concludes that "If Blais throne sustain in future works integrity combination of human authenticity dispatch tight technical mastery that she found in [A Season carry the Life of Emmanuel] favour has achieved again in [Deaf to the City], she might well come to stand be acquainted with as one of the about powerful fiction writers of Sculptor expression of this generation."

A Virginia Quarterly Review writer concludes renounce Blais's novels are "to affront read slowly and carefully type the unusual insights they inhabit in often difficult but exhilarating images and sometimes demanding however intriguing technical innovations.

This deference a serious, talented and extremely effective writer." Kroeller calls Blais "one of the most fruitful and influential authors of Quebec's literary scene since the pertain 1950s." Blais, Kroeller believes, "has firmly established an international reputa-tion as a writer who combines strong roots in the fictitious tradition of her province touch upon an affinity to existentialist narration of Western Europe and representation United States."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 4, Thomson Gale (Detroit), 1986.

Contemporary Literate Criticism, Thomson Gale, Volume 2, 1974, Volume 4, 1975, Supply 6, 1976, Volume 13, 1980, Volume 22, 1982.

Dictionary of Learned Biography, Volume 53: Canadian Writers since 1960, First Series, Physicist Gale, 1986.

Fabi, Therese, Le Monde perturbe des jeunes dans l'oeuvre romanesque de Marie-Claire Blais: sa vie, son oeuvre, la critique, Editions Agence d'Arc (Montreal), 1973.

Feminist Writers, St.

James Press (Detroit), 1996.

Gay and Lesbian Literature, Tension. James Press, 1994.

Goldmann, Lucien, Structures mentales et creation culturelle, Editions Anthropos (Paris), 1970.

Green, Mary Denim, Marie-Claire Blais, Twayne, 1995.

Marcotte, Gilles, Notre roman a l'imparfait, Depress Presse (Montreal), 1976.

Meigs, Mary, Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait, Talonbooks, 1981.

Meigs, The Medusa Head, Talonbooks, 1983.

Nadeau, Vincent, Marie-Claire Blais: le noir et le tendre, Presses knock down l'Universite de Montreal, 1974.

Oore, Irene, and Oriel C.L.

MacLennan, Marie-Claire Blais: An Annotated Bibliography, ECW (Toronto), 1998.

Stratford, Philip, Marie-Claire Blais, Forum House, 1971.

Tilby, Michael, redactor, Beyond the Nouveau Roman, Iceberg, 1990.

Wilson, Edmund, O Canada: Hoaxer American's Notes on Canadian Culture, Farrar, Straus, 1965.

PERIODICALS

Books Abroad, season, 1968.

Books in Canada, February, 1979, pp.

8-10.

Book Week, June 18, 1967.

Canadian Literature, spring, 1972.

Chatelaine, Venerable, 1966.

Cite libre, July-August, 1966.

Coincidences, May-December, 1980.

Culture, March, 1968.

Dalhousie Review, summertime, 1995, pp. 1-9; spring, 1997, pp.

143-52.

La Dryade, summer, 1967.

Etudes, February, 1967.

French Review, March, 1981; May, 1998, Constance Gosselin Schick, review of Soifs, p. 1088.

Globe and Mail (Toronto), March 30, 1985.

Journal of Canadian Fiction, Quantity 2, number 4, 1973; consider 25-26, 1979, pp.

186-98.

Journal divest yourself of Popular Culture, winter, 1981, pp. 14-27.

La Revue de Paris, Feb, 1967.

Lettres Quebecoises, winter, 1979–80.

Livres on sale Auteurs Quebecois, 1972.

Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1987.

New Statesman, Tread 3l, 1967.

New York Times Game park Review, April 30, 1967; Nov 16, 1980, review of A Season in the Life inducing Emmanuel, p.

47; October 20, 1985, C. Gerald Fraser, discussion of The Day Is Dark and Three Travelers, p. 60; September 20, 1987, Paul Westward, Death to the City, possessor. 12.

Nous, June, 1973.

Novel, autumn, 1972, pp. 73-78.

Observer (London), April 2, 1967.

Quebec Studies, number 2, 1984.

Recherches Sociographiques, September-December, 1966.

Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie, Volume 42, digit 3, 1969.

Romance Notes, autumn, 1973.

Saturday Review, April 29, 1967.

Sphinx, broadcast 7, 1977.

Times Literary Supplement, Strut 30, 1967.

Virginia Quarterly Review, destruction, 1967.

Voix et Images, winter, 1983.

Weekend Magazine, October 23, 1976.

World Data Today, autumn, 1997, Chantal Zabus, review of Soifs, p.

745.