Dans les basses Alpes françaises, en 1852, V. Ailhaud est en âge de se marier quand le village est brusquement privé de tous ses hommes par la répression du soulèvement républicain. Entre femmes, serment est fait que lors de la venue d'un homme, il sera leur mari commun. Texte écrit en 1919, alors que le village est à nouveau privé d'hommes, et mis sous scellés par testament jusqu'en 1952. ©Electre 2025
In 1852, Violette Ailhaud was about to get married when the govenment's repression of the republican uprising of December 1851 suddenly wiped out all the men of her village in the Lower Alps. For two years, the women lived in total isolation. They promised each other that if a man came along some day he would be husband to them all, so that their wombs could bring forth the next generation.
It came from the farthest depths of the valley. Long before it forded the river, long before its shadow interrupted the gleam of water between sandbars like a slow blink, we knew it was a man. Our empty, husbandless women's bodies had started thrumming in a way there was no mistaking. In unison, our exhausted arms left off stacking hay. Glancing at one another, each and all of us remembered our oath. We grasped hands, squeezing each other's hands so hard that our knuckles fairly snapped - our dream, icy with fear and burning with desire, had been set into motion.
With an Afterword by historian Jean-Marie Guillon, University of Provence, member of the 1851 Association.
« The Seed Man » has been adapted as theater, film, tale, dance, cartoon and engraving.
Paru le : 20/10/2019
Thématique : Féminismes Récits de vie
Auteur(s) : Auteur : Violette Ailhaud
Éditeur(s) :
Editions Parole
Collection(s) : Main de femme
Contributeur(s) : Traducteur : Nancy Huston
Série(s) : Non précisé.
ISBN : 978-2-37586-043-4
EAN13 : 9782375860434
Reliure : Broché
Pages : 42
Hauteur: 16.0 cm / Largeur 10.0 cm
Poids: 42 g
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