Benoîte Groult

Benoîte Groult
Born (1920-01-31)January 31, 1920
Paris, France
Died June 20, 2016(2016-06-20) (aged 96)
Hyères, France

Benoîte Groult (January 31, 1920 – June 20, 2016) was a French journalist, writer, and feminist activist.

Life and career

Groult was born on January 31, 1920 in Paris. She was the daughter of André Groult and Nicole Poiret, sister of Paul Poiret and herself a fashion designer, was raised in the Parisian upper class. Groult attended the Sorbonne, studying Latin and Greek.[1] After her studies in literature ended in 1953, she worked as a journalist for television. Before publishing her own book in 1972, she co-wrote three books with her younger sister Flora. On her own she eventually published twenty novels and numerous essays on feminism.[1]

Because Benoîte Groult was a feminist, her novels often deal with topics such as the history of feminism, the discrimination of women and misogyny.

Her novel Les vaisseaux du cœur, published in 1988, was called pornographic by some because of its explicit sexual depictions.[1] It was filmed by Andrew Birkin in 1992 as Salt on Our Skin.

Benoîte Groult at the Comédie du Livre 2010

In April 2010, she became Commander of the Légion d'honneur.[2]

Benoîte Groult was the subject of several documentary films. Anne Lefant devoted the documentary Une chambre à elle: Benoîte Groult ou comment la liberté vint aux femmes to Groult, who was 86 years old at the time. It includes testimonies of Josyane Savigneau, Paul Guimard and Yvette Roudy and was published in 2006 by Hors Champ Productions.[3] In 2008 the documentary Benoîte Groult, le temps d'apprendre à vivre, written by Marie Mitterrand and directed by Jean-Baptiste Martin, aired on France 5 as a part of the series Empreintes.[4]

In 2013 Grasset published a graphic novel based on the life of Benoîte Groult, called Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult, by the hand of Catel.[5]

Personal life

Benoîte Groult was married four times. Her first husband, Blaise Landon, whom she married in 1943, died the following year. In 1945, she married medical student Pierre Heuyer, who died soon afterward. In 1951, she married journalist Georges de Caunes with whom she had two daughters, Blandine and Lison. She later married the writer Paul Guimard (1921–2004). The couple had one daughter, Constance.[1]

Published books

Sources

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 de Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko (June 21, 2016). "Benoîte Groult, French Feminist and Writer, Dies at 96". New York Times.
  2. Le Figaro
  3. "Une chambre à elle - Entretiens avec Benoîte Groult - Présentation". www.hors-champ.net. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  4. "Documentaire Benoîte Groult, le temps d'apprendre à vivre". www.casadei.fr. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  5. "Ainsi soit Benoîte Groult". grasset.fr. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benoîte Groult.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.