Cru ; suivi de Cruauté nécessaire :  le devoir d'une vérité autobiographique chez Guibert, Dustan et Rémès
A mix between a novel and a personal journal, Cru. is a cross-section between fiction and autobiography. The text, built around a type of writing that is dry and sometimes brutal, presents two gay characters in the « post AIDS » era, who are trying to figure out what it's like to be a man in a social context where contempt (towards others, as well as self-loathing) still exists. Perhaps even more than before, because this contempt is hidden under a false global acceptance.  In the end, Cru. raises questions about the definition of «  truth » in an autobiographical approach and the implication of cruelty in a literary piece that not only concerns the writer, but it's surrounding too.   Cruauté nécessaire : le devoir d'une vérité autobiographique chez Guibert, Dustan et Rémès is an essay that analyses the stakes at work in gay autobiographical writings of the 1990's, especially AIDS-related literature.  If one of the main aspects of autobiography is to disclose the truth, how can we not talk about cruelty when the writers are revealing things that concern not only themselves? If the whole process of autobiography  involves « healing », how can we not see the final product as « painful »?  It will be relevant to first define what we mean by « truth » and « cruelty » (also « good » and « evil »).  Regarding Good and Evil (le Bien et le Mal), Bataille and Nietzsche's writings will help us define two concepts that are, way too often, relative.  When confronting the three French writers that we are studying here – all HIV-positive when writing their texts –  with different theories on autobiography (Doubrovsky, Lejeune, Miraux), identity (Foucault, Schecter, Butler), obligation and responsibility (Donner, Brooks), we will seek to demonstrate that the cruelty used by Guibert, Dustan and Rémès is, in fact, essential to the autobiographical writing process.
autobiography cruauté cruelty identity France XXe siècle XXth century Guibert Dustan Rémès Wojnarowicz