Chedid, Andrée (b. 1920). Poet, novelist, and playwright. Born in Egypt but of Lebanese Maronite extraction, Chedid settled in Paris in 1946. The landscape and history (both ancient and modern) of Egypt and Lebanon are constantly present in her work, discreetly in her poetry, more explicitly in her novels, short stories, and plays. A poet first and foremost, Chedid has published many recueils which have been collected in two volumes: Textes pour un poème (1949-1970) in 1987 and Poèmes pour un texte (1970-1991) in 1991. Delicate and often brief, sinuously rhythmical and urgently phrased, her best poems blend metaphysical preoccupations (mortality, the search for unity) with personal, corporeal experience (the human face is a key motif in her work). Chedid has writen nearly a dozen novels, several of which are set in Egypt, including Le Sommeil délivré (1952), Le Sixième Jour (1960), L'Autre (1969), La Maison sans racines (1985), and many short stories (Derrière les visages, 1983). Her plays, of which the best-known is Bérénice d'Égypte (1981), have been widely performed. In both her novels and plays Chedid shows a particular concern for women's experience and often combines social realism with more universal or mythic elements.
[Michael Sheringham]
