Julien Serge Doubrovsky (22 May 1928,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

– 23 March 2017,

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and t ...

) was a French writer and 1989

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and . It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent." The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. In 19 ...

winner for '' Le Livre brisé''. He is also a

critical theorist A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from socia ...

, and coined the term "

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 mo ...

" in the drafts for his novel ''Fils'' (1977).

Early life

Julien Doubrovsky was born on 22 May 1928 in Paris. His father was a tailor and his mother was a secretary. His family was Jewish; in 1943, in the midst of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, they fled Le Vésinet and hid with a cousin. Doubrovsky graduated from the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

, and he earned the

agrégation In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''profe ...

in English in 1949. He subsequently earned a PhD in French Literature.

Career

Doubrovsky became a Professor of French Literature at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1966. He subsequently taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...

, and

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...

. He retired in 2010. Along with publishing seven volumes of autobiography, he was known as a

.University of Leicester
/ref> He coined the term '

', which has now entered the French dictionary. Doubrovsky's autofiction, while a literary sensation in the academic world, had unfortunate real-life consequences. While he was living in New York, teaching at New York University and writing chapter after of chapter of a barely-fictionalized account of his marriage and extra-marital sex life, his young Austrian wife, Ilse, was living in a fetid studio apartment in the outer-reaches of Paris. As Doubrovsky wrote his manuscript, he would mail each chapter to Ilse. Upon reading the last chapter, recounts the magazine Causeur in 2017, she killed herself.https://www.pressreader.com/france/causeur/20170613/281887298291315

Death

Doubrovsky resided in the

16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...

of Paris. He died on 23 March 2017 in Boulogne-Billancourt .

Bibliography

*''Le jour S'', 1963. *''Corneille et la Dialectique du héros'', 1963. *''Pourquoi la nouvelle critique : critique et objectivité'', 1966. *''La Dispersion'', 1969. *''La place de la madeleine : écriture et fantasme chez Proust'',

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published ...

1974. *''Fils'', 1977. *''Parcours critique'', 1980. *''Un amour de soi'', 1982. *''La vie l'instant'', 1985. *''Autobiographiques : de Corneille à Sartre'', 1988. *''Le livre brisé'', 1989. *''L'après-vivre'' 1994. *''Laissé pour conte'', 1999. *''Parcours critique 2'', 2006 *''Un homme de passage'', 2011.

References

1928 births 2017 deaths Writers from Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists New York University faculty Prix Médicis winners French male novelists French literary critics 20th-century French Jews 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers {{France-academic-bio-stub