Virginie Despentes

Alexandra Pugh (King's College London)

Ed. by Siobhán McIlvanney, King's College London, Kate Averis, Universidad de Antioquia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born 13 Jun 1969

Places

Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Virginie Despentes is a writer, filmmaker, and occasional translator and performer. She came to prominence in 1994 with the publication of her first novel, Baise-moi, translated into English in 2003 as Rape Me (though a literal translation would be “fuck me”). Saturated with graphic scenes of sex and violence, this novel earned Despentes notoriety and established her reputation as an enfant terrible on the margins of the French literary scene. In the years since the publication of Baise-moi, Despentes has gradually moved in “from margins to center” (Schaal 2018), achieving mainstream commercial success. Her novel Apocalypse bébé (2010; Apocalypse Baby<…

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3961 words

Citation: Pugh, Alexandra. "Virginie Despentes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 November 2022 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14888, accessed 15 May 2024.]

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