Yves Navarre

Navarre, Yves (1940-94). French novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist, noted for his contribution to debates on homosexual rights. His many works show a paradoxical, often provocative, combination of lyricism and violence, particularly in the portrayal of homosexual relationships (e.g. Les Loukoums, 1973). His novel Le Jardin d'acclimatation (1980) won the Prix Goncourt. In the 1980s his fiction reflected a growing concern with the writing process itself, from the transitional Biographie (1981) to Romans, un roman (1988). The AIDS crisis led him to re-evaluate the relation between sexuality and artistic creation in the moving novel Ce sont amis que vent emporte (1991).

[Christopher Robinson]