Gisèle Prassinos (26 February 1920 – 15 November 2015) was a French writer of Greek heritage, associated with the

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

movement. She was born in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey and emigrated to France with her family at the age of two, where they lived initially in

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

. At the age of fourteen, Gisèle Prassinos began writing automatic texts to show the surrealists, who she met through Henri Parisot and her brother

Mario Prassinos Mario Prassinos (30 July 1916 – 23 October 1985) was a French modernist painter, printmaker, illustrator, stage designer, and writer of Greek-Italian descent. Life and work Prassinos was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) in ...

, who was a noted artist and designer. Gisèle captivated

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

and

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

because of "the wonder of her poetry and her personality as a woman-child".Biro & Passeron, op. cité They see in her texts "the true illustration of automatic language par excellence". Marianne van Hirtum observed that the

surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

of the time recognised these early writings as a "veritable illustration of automatic language ''par excellence''." Her writing was discovered by

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

, when she was just fourteen, and published in the French surrealist magazine

Minotaure ''Minotaure'' was a Surrealist-oriented magazine founded by Albert Skira and E. Tériade in Paris and published between 1933 and 1939. ''Minotaure'' published on the plastic arts, poetry, and literature, avant garde, as well as articles on esoter ...

and the Belgian periodical Documents 34. Her first book, ''La Sauterelle arthritique'' (''The Arthritic Grasshopper'') was published by Éditions GLM in 1935 with a preface by

and a photograph by

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

, which captures her reading her poems to the surrealist authors at the Café Dynamo. In 1940,

included ten of her texts in his ''Anthologie de l'humour noir'' ( Gallimard, 1940). Prassinos also started creating plastic arts by illustrating Lewis Carroll's ''La chasse au snark'', published by Éditions Belfond in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

. She then began her first forays into narrative with ''Le rêve'' (Fontaine,

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

), a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

about

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

and the tensions between the past and the present. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and until the end of the 1950s, she stopped publishing. After the

Prassinos's association with organised surrealism was limited, but she continued to publish widely. She worked in kindergartens and translated with her husband Pierre Fridas several books by Níkos Kazantzákis such as ''La liberté ou la mort'' (Plon, 1953) or ''Alexis Zorba'' (Plon, 1958). Subsequently, she returned to writing

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

and

novels A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

, in opposition to

orthodoxy. However, these texts are unclassifiable. She then published ''Le temps n'est rien'' (Plon, 1958), an

autofiction In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography. Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to mod ...

in which the conflict between the past and the present is still central, and ''Le visage effleuré de peine'' (Grasset, 1964). She also wrote short novels, such as ''Brelin le frou, ou le portrait de famille'' (Éditions Belfond,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

), a volume of tales describing characters who live according to fantastic rules. This work was illustrated by the author and her drawings, caricatured and with exaggerated proportions, have the particularity of wearing a headdress in the image of her sex. The stories in ''Mon cœur les écoute'' (

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

) show a poetic humour close to that of

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...

Joyce Mansour Joyce Mansour nee Joyce Patricia Adès, (25 July 1928 – 27 August 1986), was an Egyptian-French author, notable as a surrealist poet. She became the best known surrealist female poet, author of 16 books of poetry, as well as a number of importa ...

. She is also known for her drawings and tapestries, artworks made with pieces of coloured cloth. After this stage, she published mainly

fantasy novels Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

, such as ''La table de famille'' (

Flammarion Flammarion may refer to: * Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author * Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion * Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by C ...

, 1993) and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

(''La fièvre du labour'', published by Motus in 1989). Subsequently, she participated in reprints of works such as ''Le visage effleuré de peine'' (Cardinal,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

) and ''Mon cœur les écoute'' (Le mot fou Éditions,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

). Gisèle Prassinos bequeathed to the

Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris The Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, commonly abbreviated with the acronym BHVP, is a public library specializing in the history of the city of Paris, France. Formerly in the Hôtel Saint-Fargeau (now part of the Musée Carnaval ...

a large collection of

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

. Her artistic work was bequeathed to her niece Catherine Prassinos.Catherine Prassinos' website
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Bibliography

* ''La Sauterelle Arthritique'' (GLM, 1935) * ''Quand le Bruit Travaille'' (GLM, 1936) * ''La Revanche'' (GLM, 1939) * ''Sondue'' (GLM, 1939) * ''Le Temps n'est rien'' ( Plon, 1958) * ''La Voyageuse'' (Plon, 1959) * ''La Gonfidente'' (Grasset, 1962) * '' Le Visage Effleuré de Peine'' (Grasset, 1964; Cardinal, 2000; Zulma, 2004) * ''Le Grand Repas'' (Grasset, 1966) * ''Les Mots Endormis'' (Groupe Flammarion, Flammarion, 1967) * ''La Vie la Voix'' - Poésie (Groupe Flammarion, Flammarion, 1971) * ''Le Verrou'' (Groupe Flammarion, Flammarion, 1987) * ''La Table de Famille'' (Groupe Flammarion, Flammarion, 1993)

References

* ''Surrealist Women - An International Anthology'' (1998) - by

Penelope Rosemont Penelope Rosemont (born 1942 in Chicago, Illinois) is a visual artist, writer, publisher, and social activist who attended Lake Forest College. She has been a participant in the Surrealist Movement since 1965. With Franklin Rosemont, Bernard Mar ...

1920 births People from Nanterre Greek emigrants to France 2015 deaths French women poets Surrealist poets Greek–French translators 20th-century French painters 20th-century translators 20th-century French women writers French surrealist writers French surrealist artists Women surrealist artists Constantinopolitan Greeks Writers from Istanbul {{France-writer-stub