Translating at the Edge of Language: Eroticism, Rebellion, and the Algerian War in Pierre Guyotat's 'Idiocy,' NYC

To mark the U.S. release of Pierre Guyotat’s Idiocy, newly translated by Peter Behrman de Sinéty and published by New York Review Books, La Maison Française of NYU will host an evening of readings and conversation exploring the legacy of the radical, experimental French writer. De Sinéty will be joined in conversation by the philosopher and scholar Catherine Malabou.

Published in French in 2018 and awarded the Prix Médicis, Idiocy is a searing autobiographical account of Guyotat’s formative years, his rebellion against familial and military authority, and his imprisonment during the Algerian War. Blending linguistic experimentation with a meditation on state violence, eroticism, and the possibility of artistic resistance, the memoir is both an indictment of colonial domination and the formal culmination of a literary vision that Edmund White once described as belonging to “one of the few geniuses of our day.”