Catherine millet biography
Catherine Millet: Great literature today is autobiographical
The renowned art historian, Catherine Millet was born in 1948 in a suburb of Paris, in Boi-Colombes. She only ever referred to a childhood of suffering and daydreaming in her two novels, The Sex Life of Catherine M. – which caused a stir around the world for its candour – and in Jealousy: The Other Life of Catherine M. In A Fairy-tale Childhood (which was released in Hungarian by Magvető Publishing House for Margó Literary Festival) she describes in detail her girlhood experiences and how she was able to process these experiences. Millet, who besides writing is the editor of a modern art journal, Art Press, is perhaps most open in her latest work; not only is she giving us a glimpse into her private life, but into her imagination, too.
Why did you write your adulthood, your sex life first and your childhood second? Should the reader be familiar with the previous books, and should the latest be read with them in mind?
The reader of course has every right to read my books in any order they please – despite the fact that I didn’t tell my life’s story in the order it happened. It’s worth knowing, I wrote my first book about my sex life after I’d lived through the crisis of jealousy, the topic of my second book. It was as though in some respect I’d been starved of my sexuality, but then writing the detailed descriptions and afterwards I felt I’d won it back, I’d got hold of it again. The third book, however, A Fairy-tale Childhood, was a kind of response or explanation to why there was so much freedom in my sex life. I was searching my childhood for why I entered adulthood without any moral a priori.
In The Sex Life of Catherine M., explicit expression dominates the narration, while in A Fairy-tale Childhood at times it’s poetic. Was this contrast intentional, or were both simply necessary for the divergent periods of your life?
Yes, the two styles aren’t the same. When I began The Sex Life After the pleasure comes the pain. The Sexual Life of Catherine M, Catherine Millet's analysis of the many forms and flavours of sexual pleasure, was internationally admired, and not just for its literary qualities. The audacity of a sex life well lived and thoroughly examined left readers wondering how she managed to pull it off while sustaining her relationship with life partner, writer Jacques Henric. 'I had love at home' she explained. 'I sought only pleasure in the world outside'. French art critic and author (born 1948) Not to be confused with Kate Millett. Catherine Millet (French:[mijɛ]; born 1 April 1948) is a French writer, art critic, curator, and founder and editor of the magazine Art Press, which focuses on modern art and contemporary art. Born in Bois-Colombes, France, she is best known as the author of the 2002 memoir The Sexual Life of Catherine M.; the book details her sexual history, from childhood masturbation to an adult fascination with group sex. The book was reviewed by Edmund White as "the most explicit book about sex ever written by a woman". In 2008 she published a sequel of sorts called Jour de Souffrance, translated to English in 2009 as Jealousy: The Other Life of Catherine M. She is married to the poet and novelist Jacques Henric. In April 2016, Catherine Millet received the Prix François Morellet from Régine Catin, Laurent Hamon and Philippe Méaille. Awarded during the National Days of Book and Wine (Saumur), in partnership with the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art; it rewards a personality for their commitment and their writings in favor of contemporary art. In December 2017, during an interview on the French radio France Culture she claimed "I really regret not having been raped, because I could show that you can recover from it". In January 2018 she co-authored a public letter to Le Monde newspaper criticising the #MeToo movement. The letter was signed by over a hundred French women, including actress Catherine Deneuve, and generated considerable controversy. .Jealousy: The Other Life of Catherine M
Then one day she discovered a letter lying about the apartment, from which it became clear that Jacques was involved elsewhere. Jealousy details the crisis provoked by this discovery and her reaction to it. If The Sexual Life of Catherine M seemed to disregard emotion, Jealousy is its radical complement: the paradoxical confession of a libertine, who succumbs to the 'timeless and universal malady'.Catherine Millet
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