The Revolutionary Poetics of Pierre Guyotat

Abstract

The writings of Pierre Guyotat (b.1940 Bourg-Argental) have been the subject of considerable controversy. After being unavailable for a number of years, two early works (Sur un cheval, 1961) and Ashby (1964) were republished in 2005. 2 In 1967 he came to public notice with the publication of Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats, a violent, semi-mythical epic of blood, sweat and semen, with echoes of Genet, Guibert, Noel, Sade and Wittig, and even Malraux's La Condition humaine. 3 Although 1970 saw the brief publication of an even more provocative, single-sentence erotic text, Eden, Eden, Eden, describing the multiple copulations of a group of men, women, children and animals in and around an Arab brothel (male and female), this work was banned for eleven years, finally appearing in print at the end of 1981. Despite periods of ill-health and withdrawal, he has since produced a considerable output of journalism, theatre, biographical and 'literary' works, from Prostitution (1975, 1987) to Le Livre (1984), Vivre (1984), Progenitures (2000), Explications (2000) and, more recently, a first volume of chronological commentary on his life and writings, Carnets de bord 1962-1969