Béatrice Vernier

Dr. B. Vernier primary research focuses on the personal writings (correspondence, diaries, autobiographies, articles) of famous French painters (1850-1950), Gauguin, Van Gogh, Moreau, Redon and Léger in order to understand what drives them to write besides their pictorial expression. Her research also includes a new kind of intimate writing, “récit de filiation”, which mixes autobiography and biography. The author writes about the life of an ancestor (father, mother, grand-parents) who remained not well known because of a premature death to reflect on his own life. She tries to explain why and how biographic and autobiographic styles of writing are mixed. Her most recent publications include: two entries on Léocadie Doze and Zulma Carraud in Le Dictionnaire universel des femmes créatrices, (B. Didier, A. Fouque et M. Calle-Gruber eds) (2013); “Photographie et récit de filiation. L’Africain de J.M.G. Le Clézio”, in University of Toronto Quaterly; 81.2; “Bouche cousue et La Reine du silence: une réconciliation intime et publique”,in Women in French Studies (17).