Background

Suzanne Lilar was born on May 21, 1901, in Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Education

In 1919 Suzanne Lilar enrolled at the University of Ghent, where she studied philosophy and then became the first woman to obtain a law degree in 1925. During her studies, she participated in a seminar on Hadewijch in Antwerp. His interest in the poet and mystic of the XIII century played a very important role in her tests, theater and novels future.

Career

Suzanne Lilar, a Belgian author of novels, plays, and essays, wrote in French and focused primarily on feminist themes. Lilar, who studied philosophy and worked as a lawyer for seven years before turning to journalism and literature, established her literary reputation with the play Le Burlador. It was the first version of the Don Juan legend penned by a woman and presented what critics considered a relatively sympathetic portrait of the main character usually reviled for his casual seduction of women. In addition to the subsequent plays Tous les chemins mènent au ciel and Le roi lepreux, Lilar published an essay in English on modem Belgian drama, The Belgian Theater since 1890.

In the analytical novels Le divertissement portugais and La confession anonyme, Lilar continued to explore questions of eroticism and desire. Her collection of essays, Le couple, which is considered one of her most important works, argued that love can, in the words of a Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature contributor, become a “ ‘sacral’ ... link between flesh and spirit.” À propos de Sartre et de l'amour and Le malentendu du deuxième sexe, also among Lilar’s most significant writings, critiqued the work of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. In these essays, Lilar suggested that the sexes exist in complementary relationship, and argued against the privileging of masculine values. She also discussed the subject of bisexuality.

Une enfance gantoise and À la recherché d'une enfance, Lilar’s last works, were autobiographical explorations of memory. In these prose works, Lilar showed the importance of significant moments from the past in the construction of the self.

Achievements

• Lilar was elected to the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium in 1956. She received the title of baroness in 1976.
  
  Lilar’s works have been translated into several languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Aspects of Love in Western Society

    (Includes illustrations, portraits, bibliographical refeen...)

    1965
  • Cahiers Suzanne Lilar 1986
  • Journal de l'analogiste 1979
  • Le couple 1991
  • Two Great Belgian Plays, About Love 1966
  • La pareja. Un nuevo conocimiento del amor. 1969

Views

Suzanne Lilar's autobiographical work yields a beautiful picture of the French-speaking Ghent bourgeoisie at the start of the 20th century. Her work is also feminist and Lilar actively participated in the female struggle for emancipation. For years she brought women politicians, academics, civil servants, entrepreneurs, and artists together in the University Foundation in Egmontstraat in Brussels to promote the emancipation of women.

Suzanne Lilar, however, approached the emancipation of women rather moderately and pragmatically. Notorious is her sharp criticism of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième sexe from 1949, a symbol of the second feminist wave. Lilar thought the essay is an incoherent, repetitive and self-contradictory radical shot. She blamed Beauvoir for cultivating a Hegelian vision of conflict between the sexes, turning away from physicality and minimizing biological differences between men and women.

Membership

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  Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium , Belgium

Connections

Susanne Lilar moved to Antwerp and in 1929 she married the liberal lawyer Albert Lilar who would become later Minister of Justice. She was the mother of the writer Françoise Mallet-Joris (1930-2016) and the historian of art Marie-Fredericq Lilar (born in 1934). After the death of her husband in 1976, she left Antwerp for Brussels in 1977.

Spouse:

Albert Lilar

Albert Jean Julien François, Baron Lilar (21 December 1900 - 16 March 1976) was a Belgian politician of the Liberal Party and a Minister of Justice.

Daughter:

Françoise Mallet-Joris

Daughter:

Marie Fredericq-Lilar

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194
  2010