Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Woman of the Wolf and Other Stories by Karla Jay, Renée Vivien, Yvonne M. Klein

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2.5

If there is one statement I might make about a Symbolist writer like Renée Vivien, she was quite adept at vibes. Curious English speakers can access in translation several editions of the work of this British-American writer, birth name Pauline Mary Tarn, who loved Paris and chose French to express herself at the beginning of the 20th century. Most recently the prose collection Woman of the Wolf, originally published in 1904 and first translated to English back in 1983, offers fabled short works in a new 2020 edition by indie UK publisher Editions Gallic as part of a ‘Revolutionary Women’ series. 

Small and feminist presses have in fact been translating Vivien’s work for decades along with notable lesbian critics adding their various analyses. Like the text they engage though such might call back contemporary readers to another narrative. All the labour and editions do reveal Vivien’s work (and short life) through ardent translators and others still holds an attraction; whether it’s too little, too much, or just right.  Skill it cannot be forgotten owed as much to those who form the English books and the author image for readers, just as Vivien took her hand to translation of Sappho as well. Once more, their passions are just as clear. 

Yet, history and its embarrassing or more ugly aspects should not be papered over. Certainly, if not unexpectedly, Vivien’s work doesn’t all age well. While texts may engage with violence, misogyny and lesbophobia, the gender essentialism, elitism, racism, and valourising dualistic dichotomies exhibited also makes it more difficult to appreciate the occurrences of gleams of imagination, subversion, satire, or craft. 

Still, Renée Vivien and other writers of the past may have their place. I prefer her contributions as a poetess much more than her other examples of writing, however related each form may be. (If possible, read in French as translating poetry is one of the hardest tasks and I feel like with Vivien, who chose French after all, English just doesn’t quite measure up.) I can only suggest a collection like Woman of the Wolf as an artifact for those with a clear historical interest in French sapphic writing of the so-named beautiful era. 

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