Guillaume Dustan (28 November 1965, Paris – 3 October 2005) was an openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

writer. Dustan's 1998 novel, ''In My Room'', brought the author instant notoriety for his masterful use of

autofiction Autofiction is, in literary criticism, a form of fictionalized autobiography. Definition In autofiction, an author may decide to recount their life in the Third-person narrative, third person, to modify significant details and characters, use in ...

and depiction of gay glamour and romance in mid-1990s Paris.

Early life and education

Dustan was born William Baranès in France in 1965. He graduated from the

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

and worked as an administrative judge before turning to writing. He used the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Guillaume Dustan from 1995 onwards.

Work

Dustan's first novel, ''Dans ma chambre (In My Room)'' (1996), brought him immense fame in France for his ambitious portrayal of gay life in a Paris celebrated for its sensual pleasures and haunted by the AIDS crisis.Owen Heathcote, 'DUSTAN, GUILLAUME', in ''Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature'', ed. Gaetan Brulotte and John Phillips, New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 386-287 He also edited ''Le Rayon Gay'', a collection of books, for Balland. He was also a

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

producer, and the films he produced include ''Nous'' and ''Back''. In 2004, Dustan played a role in the film ''

Process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management * Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...

'' written & directed by

C. S. Leigh C. S. Leigh (1964 – reported dead March, 2016) was a British-American film director based in London and Paris, who previously worked as a curator under the name Christian Leigh. From 1987 to 1993 he was a well known figure in the New York art wor ...

, as the employee who checked

Béatrice Dalle Béatrice Dalle (born 19 December 1964) is a French actress and model. She has appeared in over fifty films and is best known internationally for her debut role in the 1986 film '' 37°2 le matin'' (also released as ''Betty Blue''). Béatrice Da ...

's character into the hotel where she later took her own life. The film also stars

Guillaume Depardieu Guillaume Jean Maxime Antoine Depardieu (7 April 1971 – 13 October 2008) was a French actor, winner of a César Award, and the second oldest child of Gérard Depardieu. Early life Depardieu was the son of actor Gérard Depardieu and his first ...

. Dustan's writing has been compared to

Renaud Camus Renaud Camus (; ; born Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus on 10 August 1946) is a French novelist and conspiracy theorist. He is the originator of the far-right "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, which claims that a "global elite" is colluding again ...

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...

Hervé Guibert Hervé Guibert (14 December 1955 – 27 December 1991) was a French writer and photographer. The author of numerous novels and autobiographical studies, he played a considerable role in changing French public attitudes to HIV/AIDS. He was a ...

, Celine's ''

Journey to the End of the Night ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (, 1932) is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in World War I, colonial Africa, the United States and the poor suburbs of ...

'',

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

's ''

Long Day's Journey into Night ''Long Day's Journey into Night'' is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939–1941 and first published posthumously in 1956. It is widely regarded as his magnum opus and one of the great American plays of the ...

'', and

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack (literary), Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique as a writer is the expression of extreme acts ...

. Critic Bruce Hainley writes that Dustan celebrated Duras for her liberating sense of abjection and "alcoholizations of the first person", including her “bad French, her badly written books of the ’eighties and ’nineties”. Dustan's first three novels, ''In My Room,'' ''I'm Going Out Tonight,'' and ''Stronger Than Me,'' published in France between 1996 and 1998, were re-released in English by Semiotext(e) in 2021. Edited by Thomas Clerc and translated by Daniel Maroun, the novels follow the narrator's sexual journeys in Paris. He was a contemporary of such gay writers as Herve Guibert,

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describe ...

Kevin Killian Kevin Killian (December 24, 1952 – June 15, 2019) was an American poet, author, editor, and playwright, primarily of LGBT literature. ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, wo ...

, and

Gary Indiana Gary Hoisington (July 16, 1950 – October 23, 2024), known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the ''Village Voice'' weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best k ...

. Dustan was a proponent of

barebacking Bareback sex is physical sexual activity, especially sexual penetration, without the use of a condom. The topic primarily concerns anal sex between men without the use of a condom, and may be distinguished from unprotected sex because ''bareback ...

and at loggerheads with

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

Death

Dustan died of an accidental drug overdose on 3 October 2005. He is buried in

Montparnasse Cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement of Paris, 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,00 ...

(division 29).

Bibliography

* ''Dans ma chambre'', (tr. ''

In My Room "In My Room" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher for the American rock band the Beach Boys. It was released on their 1963 album '' Surfer Girl''. It was also released as the B-side of the " Be True to Your School" single. The singl ...

'',

Serpent's Tail Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Book ...

and

Semiotext(e) Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher of critical theory, fiction, philosophy, art criticism, activist texts and non-fiction. History Founded in 1974, ''Semiotext(e)'' began as a journal that emerged from a semiotics reading group led by Syl ...

), 1996 * ''Je sors ce soir'', 1997 * ''Plus fort que moi'', 1997 * ''Nicolas Pages'', 1999 (winner of the

Prix de Flore The Prix de Flore is a French literary prize founded in 1994 by Frédéric Beigbeder. The aim of the prize is to reward youthful authors and it is judged by a panel of journalists. It is awarded yearly in November, at the Café de Flore in Paris. T ...

) * ''Génie divin'', 2001 * ''LXIR'', 2002 * ''Dernier Roman'', 2004 * ''Premier Essai'', 2005

Reedition

* ''Oeuvres 1'', 2013 *:Includes ''Dans ma chambre'', ''Je sors ce soir'' and ''Plus fort que moi'' (all three commented by Thomas Clerc) *:English: ''The Works of Guillaume Dustan, Volume 1'', tr. Daniel Maroun, June 2021

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dustan, Guillaume 1965 births 2005 deaths École nationale d'administration alumni 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists French gay writers French LGBTQ novelists French LGBTQ rights activists Writers from Paris French male essayists French male novelists 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French male writers 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French LGBTQ people 21st-century French LGBTQ people