Édouard Dujardin
Édouard Dujardin was a French writer born on November 10, 1861, in St. Gervais, France. He spent much of his youth in Normandy and later studied music at the Paris Conservatory, developing a passion for Richard Wagner's operas. Dujardin is best known for his 1888 novel *Les Lauriers sont coupés*, which introduced innovative narrative techniques such as interior monologues and stream of consciousness. Although initially overlooked, this work gained prominence for its influence on James Joyce, particularly in the writing of *Ulysses*. Throughout his life, Dujardin faced personal challenges, including a divorce in 1904, and he explored various literary forms, including Symbolist dramas. His later years were marked by a controversial turn towards anti-Semitism and collaboration with Nazi ideologies, culminating in a book that controversially linked Hitler to mythical leadership. Despite his complex and often troubled legacy, Dujardin's contributions to literary techniques remain significant. He passed away in relative obscurity on October 31, 1949, in Paris.
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Subject Terms
Édouard Dujardin
Writer
- Born: November 10, 1861
- Birthplace: St. Gervais, France
- Died: October 31, 1949
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Édouard Dujardin was born in St. Gervais, France, on November 10, 1861. When he was still a young child, his parents moved to Normandy, and he attended grammar and secondary schools in Rouen. In 1881, he enrolled in Paris’s Conservatory to study music, and he soon became enamored with the operas of Richard Wagner. In 1885, he founded the Revue wagnérienne and got to know the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who shared Dujardin’s enthusiasm for Wagner’s music and encouraged Dujardin to compose an experimental work of fiction. Dujardin accepted this challenge. His 1888 novel Les Lauriers sont coupés (the laurel trees are cut down) introduced interior monologues and stream of consciousness narratives into novels. Although this short work attracted little attention in 1887, it later became very famous when James Joyce affirmed that this novel had helped him to use stream of consciousness in his novel Ulysses. In 1886, Dujardin married, but his marriage ended in divorce in 1904. He and his wife, Germaine, had one son. In the 1890’s, Dujardin wrote a series of unsuccessful Symbolist dramas, and soon he developed an interest in Christianity. In 1906, he earned a M.A. in religious studies, and he regularly taught courses on Catholicism at Parisian universities. He wrote several strange books on Catholicism that were not well received because they seriously distorted basic Catholic beliefs. Near the end of his long life, he became a virulent anti-Semite, and he collaborated actively with the Nazis during the occupation of France. In his 1943 book De l’ancêtre mythique au chef moderne (from the mythical ancestor to the modern chief), he presented the grotesque argument that Adolf Hitler was a modern representation of a mythical Greek or Roman leader. Although Edouard Dujardin had a long and not very distinguished career as a writer, he has remained famous because of his influence on James Joyce. He died forgotten in Paris on October 31, 1949.
