27 December 1991(1991-12-27) (aged 36) Paris, France
Occupation
Writer
Nationality
French
Hervé Guibert (14 December 1955 – 27 December 1991) was a French writer and photographer.[1][2][3] The author of numerous novels and autobiographical studies, he played a considerable role in changing French public attitudes to HIV/AIDS.[4] He was a close friend and lover of Michel Foucault.
After working as a filmmaker and actor, he turned to photography and journalism. In 1978, he successfully applied for a job at France's evening paper Le Monde and published his second book, Les Aventures singulières (published by Éditions de Minuit). In 1984, Guibert shared a César Award for best screenplay with Patrice Chéreau for L'homme blessé. Guibert had met Chéreau in the 1970s during his theatrical years. He won a scholarship between 1987 and 1989 at Villa Medicis in Rome with his friend, writer Mathieu Lindon. He described these years in L'Incognito, published in 1989.[citation needed]
Guibert's writing style was inspired by the French writer Jean Genet and, later, by the work of Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. Three of his lovers occupied an important place in his life and work: Thierry Jouno, director of the International Visual Theatre for the deaf in Paris, whom he met in 1976; Michel Foucault, whom he met in 1977; and Vincent Marmousez, a teenager of fifteen who inspired his novel Fou de Vincent (published in English as Crazy for Vincent).[citation needed]
For a time in the 1980s Guibert was a reader at the institute for young blind in Paris, Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which led to his novel Des aveugles (published in English as Blindsight).
In January 1988 Guibert was diagnosed with AIDS.[5] From then on, he worked at recording what was left of his life. In June the following year, he married Christine, the partner of Thierry Jouno, so that his royalty income would eventually pass to her and her two children.[6] In 1990, Guibert publicly revealed his HIV status in his roman à clefÀ l'ami qui ne m'a pas sauvé la vie (published in English as To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life). Nina Bouraoui in The Guardian described the book thus:
"In this book, he tells the story of his illness, AIDS, in the late 1980s. He tells of how life with the virus became an existential adventure, how it affected a generation, how it stole his friends and lovers, and how writing was for him a bulwark against death and destruction. It's the story of an era, a turning point – when AIDS transformed our relationship with desire and sexuality forever."[7]
Upon publication, Guibert immediately found himself the focus of media attention, featured in newspapers and appearing on several television talk shows, including Apostrophes, a literary program with a wide audience.[8]
To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life was followed by two additional autofictional novels detailing the progress of his illness: Le Protocole compassionnel (1991; published in English as The Compassionate Protocol) and L'Homme au chapeau rouge (published in English as The Man in the Red Hat), which was released posthumously in January 1992. In his last work, Cytomégalovirus (1992), he describes a hospitalization in autumn 1991 and his increasing blindness caused by disease.[9]
Between July 1990 and February 1991, Guibert filmed scenes from his daily life living with AIDS, which became the film La Pudeur ou l'impudeur.[10] The film was produced by Pascale Breugnot and edited by Maureen Mazurek and was broadcast posthumously on French television. According to scholar Ross Chambers, the title (which can be roughly translated as "decorum or indecorum") refers to questions of how to present the realities of illness and death to an audience "readily shocked by what it does not wish to know about".[11]
In December 1991, Guibert attempted to end his life by taking digitalin. He died two weeks later, on 27 December 1991.[12][13]
In 2022, the journalist and writer Mathieu Lindon published Hervelino (Semiotext(e)). Translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman, the book chronicles the start of their friendship, along with Foucault, as well as the years they both spent living in Rome.[14]Letters to Eugène: Correspondence 1977–1987 (Semiotext(e)) was published the same year. The book details correspondences between Guibert and Eugène Savitzkaya and is translated by Christine Pichini.[15]
