Hélène Parmelin

Parmelin, Hélène 

Born Aug. 19, 1915, in Nancy. French writer.

From 1944 to 1956, Parmelin was a contributor to the newspaper L’Humanité. In the 1950’s she wrote a number of novels dealing with social issues, including La Montée au mur (1950), Serial Number 2078 (1953), about Henri Martin, who actively opposed the war in Vietnam; In Black and White (1954), about the work of the editorial staff of L’Humanité during the Korean War; The Diplodocus (1955); and Leonardo in the Hereafter (1957), about the exploitation of artists by gallery owners. The novels The Bull-Matador (1959), The Known Soldier (1962), Today (1963), and The Trip to Lucerne (1965) suffer from a lack of clarity and simplicity because of the author’s indulgence in verbal and compositional games. From 1965 to 1970, Parmelin returned to concrete social themes, at the same time adhering to the principles of the “new” technique of writing novels. Gadgetry (1967) exposed the consumer society’s passion for useless things, and The Black Way (1970) told of the events in France in May and June 1968 and the changes in the consciousness of leftist intellectuals. Parmelin is also known for her critical essays on fine art.

WORKS

Cinq Peintres et le théâtre. Paris [1956].
Picasso dit …. [Paris, 1966].
Le Guerrier fourbu. Paris [1966].
La Femme-crocodile. [Paris, 1968.]
In Russian translation:
”Posledniaia noch” Alikante.” In the collection Rasskazy frantsuzskikh pisatelei, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCES

Uvarov, Iu. Frantsuzskaia literatura segodnia. Moscow, 1960.
Vaksmakher, M. Frantsuzskaia literatura nashikh dnei. Moscow, 1967.
Stil, A. “Blanc sur noir.” L’Humanité, Oct. 1, 1970, p. 10.

IU. P. UVAROV