Jouve, Pierre Jean (1887-1976)

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JOUVE, PIERRE JEAN (1887-1976)

Pierre Jean Jouve, a French writer and poet, was born on October 11, 1887, and died in Paris on January 8, 1976. He is important for incorporating psychoanalytic themes in his novels. His father, Alfred, was a manager in a life insurance company; his mother, Eugénie Aimée Rosé, encouraged his interest in music. A sister, Madeleine, born in 1889, married Pierre Castiau, who had considerable influence on the poet's intellectual development.

In 1902 Jouve had an appendectomy, followed by years of fatigue and depression. In 1905 he received his baccalaureate, then went on to study law at the University of Lille. At school he published a poetry review, Les bandeaux d'or. In 1910 he married Marie Caroline Charpentier, a history major, who monitored his uncertain health. They had a son, Olivier, in 1914.

Disqualified from active service, he served as a nurse during the First World War and struck up friendships with Romain Rolland and other pacifists. In 1921 he met Blanche Reverchon. A marital crisis ensued, followed by divorce, and in 1923 Jouve moved in with Blanche to her apartment on Rue Boissonnade in Paris. In 1933 they moved to Rue Tournon.

In 1925 Jouve published Paulina 1880, a novel about the author and Hélène, a composite of several women. In 1928 he published Hécate, and in 1931 Vagadu, a sequel. Together, these two works make up the Aventures de Catherine Crachat. In a commentary on Vagadu, Jouve confirmed that he had read a description of the principal steps in psychoanalytic therapy after writing Hécate. He then began a fictional analysis of Catherine Crachet, which became the novel Vagadu.

In his writing, Jouve focused on three elements of Freudian theory: there is always an unconscious; it is dominated by sexual energy and its opposite, the death impulse; the development of an unconscious sex life is accompanied by feelings of guilt and human error. Jouve created a body of work divided between the Saint Paul of the Epistle to the Romans and Freud, religious chastity and the sexual instinct, in which the soul, driven by love, contains death. The erotic writings of this period were published only after his death.

In 1933 he wrote, with Blanche, an article for the Nouvelle revue française titled "Moments d'une psychanalyse" (Moments of a psychoanalysis). The same year he also wrote Sueur de sang (Sweat of blood), a collection of poems written on the basis of unconscious values.

During the 1940s he was close to the Gaullist movement and the Resistance. He stopped writing in 1962 and died on the exact same day as Blanche two years later.

Jean-Pierre Bourgeron

See also: France; Literature and psychoanalysis; Reverchon Jouve, Blanche.