Gisèle Pineau (born 18 May 1956) is a French novelist, writer and former
psychiatric
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psyc ...
nurse. Although born in
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. ...
, her origins are
Guadeloupean and she has written several books on the difficulties and torments of her childhood as a Black person growing up in Parisian society.
Early life and career
In 1956, Gisèle Pineau was born in Paris, France. During her youth, she divided her time between France and Guadeloupe due to her father's stationing in the military.
Pineau struggled with her identity as a Black immigrant due to the racism and xenophobia she experienced at her all-white school in the Kremlin-Bicêtre suburb.
Pineau took to writing in order to console the difficulties of her French upbringing and Caribbean heritage, as her works would connect the two cultures rather than separating them.
She is aligned with the ''
créolité
''Créolité'' is a literary movement first developed in the 1980s by the Martinican writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. They published ''Eloge de la créolité'' (In Praise of Creoleness) in 1989 as a response to the ...
'' literary movement, and in the 1990s was among the most prominent of Guadeloupean ''créolité''-adjacent writers, alongside .
In her writings, she uses the oral tradition of storytelling in fictional works to reclaim the narratives of Caribbean culture.
She also focuses on
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
and the effects it can have on a young girl trying to discover her own cultural identity. Her book ''L'Exil Selon Julia'' highlights this, as she relies on the memories and experiences of her aged grandmother to help her learn about her society's traditions and her own cultural background. In the book, she also mentions that the discrimination she felt as a child did not only apply to French society in Paris, but also to the people of Guadeloupe, who rejected her for being too cosmopolitan upon her return to the land of her ancestors.
She for many years lived in Paris and, whilst maintaining her writing career, has also returned to being a psychiatric nurse in order to balance out her life; but she recently has moved back to Guadeloupe.
Bibliography
* 1992: ''Un papillon dans la cité''
* 1993: ''La Grande Drive des esprits'',
Grand prix des lectrices de Elle
The Grand prix des lectrices de Elle is a French literary prize awarded by readers of ''Elle'' magazine.
History
Unlike other literary prizes that have professionals for their juries and selection committees, the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle i ...
* 1995: ''L'Espérance-Macadam'',
Prix RFO du livre (1996)
* 1996: ''L'Exil selon Julia''
* 1998: ''L’âme prêtée aux oiseaux''
* 1998: ''Le cyclone Marilyn''
* 1998: ''Femmes des Antilles''
* 1999: ''Caraïbe sur Seine''
* 2001: ''Case mensonge''
* 2002: ''Chair piment''
* 2004: ''Les colères du Volcan''
* 2005: ''Fleur de barbarie''
* 2007: ''Mes quatre femmes''
* 2007: ''C'est la règle''
* 2008: ''Morne Câpresse''
* 2010: ''Folie, aller simple''
* 2010: ''L’odyssée d’Alizée''
* 2012: ''Cent Vies et des Poussières''
* 2015: ''Les voyages de Merry Sisal''
References
External links
Gisèle Pineau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pineau, Gisele
20th-century French novelists
21st-century French novelists
20th-century French women writers
1956 births
French people of Guadeloupean descent
Living people
21st-century French women writers
Writers from Paris
Créolité