Lise Deharme (née Anne-Marie Hirtz; 5 May 1898 – 19 January 1980) was a French writer 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 ...

movement.

Biography

Deharme was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

in 1898. Her father was a famous doctor. In January 1925, she visited the Paris Bureau of Surrealist Research. As a result of an incident that occurred during her visit, which is recorded in André Breton's '' Nadja'', she would become known as the "dame au gant," or the Lady of the Glove. In 1927 she married Paul Deharme, the radio pioneer who worked with surrealist

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

. Using the pen name Lisa Hirtz, she published her first book: ''Il était une petite pie'' 'There was a little magpie''(with 8

pochoir Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

s by Joan Miró) in 1928. Until recently, the legacy of Lise Deharme has been told in the margins of books on Surrealism and Surrealism’s father, André Breton. She is remembered as the "first impossible mad love dreamed of by André Breton".Barnet, Marie-Claire. "To Lise Deharme's Lighthouse: Le Phare De Neuilly, a Forgotten Surrealist Review." French Studies LVII.3 (2003): 323–334. Print. However, her social and political influence on Surrealism extends far beyond the novel, and beyond her influence as Breton's "notorious muse". In recent years, historians such as Marie-Claire Barnet,

Mary Ann Caws Mary Ann Caws (born 1933) is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and ...

, Renée Riese Hubert, Andréa Oberhuber, and

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 ...

, have begun to un-do the "reducing" of Deharme to "a failed love story". These scholars have set out to establish a more dynamic conception of Deharme's reputation. In her lifetime, she gained "celebrity as a hostess". Specifically, she was a prolific organizer of Surrealist salons.

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 Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

once described Deharme’s house, where she held her salons, as “a rambling affair, filled with strange objects and rococo furniture”.Man Ray. Self Portrait. Bulfinch Press, 1963. Print. Amidst these rambling salons, Deharme’s subversive publication, Le Phare de Neuilly, emerged in 1933. Le Phare de Neuilly provided space for radical juxtapositions of works by contributors such as " Natalie Barney,

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

, and Jacques Lacan" and was poignantly political and subversive. As the curator of Le Phare, Deharme personally " lendedethical and aesthetic issues to address the socio-political troubles of the early 1930s". In the late 1930s, Deharme collaborated with Claude Cahun on the book Le Cœur de Pic. After publishing Le Cœur de Pic in 1937 Deharme, alternatively, came to be known in the Surrealist circle as "la Dame de Pique"Barnet, Marie-Claire. La Femme Cent Sexes Ou Les Genres Communicants: Deharme, Mansour, Prassinos. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998. Print. he Queen of Spades Around this time she was closely connected to André Breton, Paul Eluard, and Man Ray. She is featured posing in one of Man Ray’s photographs as the Queen of Spades. Marie Clare Barnet describes the significance of Deharme's new nickname: Le choix du symbole maléfique de la Dame de Pique nous suggère donc qu'on aurait tort de reléguer ses ouvres dans la rubrique "charme fragile" de la "féminité féline et végétale". Méfiance, le charme de l'humour deharmien est plus vénéneux qu'on a pu le laisser entendre, même dans le meilleurs ouvrages de références. [The choice of the malevolent symbol of the Queen of Spades suggests that we would be wrong to relegate her work to the "fragile charm" category of "feline and floral femininity". Beware: the charm of Deharmian humor is more poisonous than we have been led to believe, even in the best reference books].

Written works

References

Bibliography

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

, pages 69–70
To Lise Deharme's Lighthouse: ''Le Phare de Neuilly'', A Forgotten Surrealist Review
by Marie-Claire Barnet,

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

* Caws, Mary Ann. Glorious Eccentrics. 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print. *Chadwick, Whitney, ed. Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998. Print. *Deharme, Lise. Le Cœur de Pic . Illus. Claude Cahun. 2nd ed. Rennes: Éditions MeMo, 2004. Print. *Malt, Johanna. "Recycling, Contamination and Compulsion: Practices of the Objet Surréaliste." Surrealism: Crossings/Frontiers. Ed. Elza Adamowicz. 18 Vol. Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2006. 109-131. Print. European Connections. *Oberhuber, Andrea. "Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore, Lise Deharme and the Surrealist Book." History of Photography 31.1 (2007): 40. Print. *Oberhuber, Andrea. "The Surrealist Book as a Cross-Border Space: The Experimentation of Lise Deharme and Gisèle Prassinos." Image & Narrative 12.13 (2011): 81. Print. *Rosemont, Penelope. Surrealist Women. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1998. Print.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deharme, Lise Writers from Paris 1898 births 1980 deaths 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French non-fiction writers French fantasy writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Prix Sainte-Beuve winners Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French women novelists Surrealist writers Surrealist writers by nationality French surrealist writers French surrealist artists Women surrealist artists Signatories of the 1971 Manifesto of the 343