Juna Barnes: biography, years of life, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

American modernist writer D. Bruns openly discussed and raised issues of same-sex love, a topic that shocked the public at the beginning of the 20th century. Juna attracted attention not only with her bold statements, but also with her appearance - a men's felt hat, a blouse with black polka dots, a black blazer - this is how she was remembered by her contemporaries and became a key figure in the French bohemia of the 20s.

Writer's family

Juna Barnes was born on June 12, 1892 near Cornwall, New York. Her paternal grandmother - Zadel Barnes - was a journalist and writer. A feminist and a fan of spiritualism, she will become the prototype of the heroine of one of Juna's novels. The father, a failed composer and artist, did not pay due attention to the family, so the grandmother, who firmly believed in her son's talent, had to take care of the big family.

A proponent of polygamy, Wald Barnes married Juna's mother in 1889. But since 1887, his mistress F. Clark has already lived in the house. Juna was the second of eight children in the family and spent most of her childhood taking care of the younger ones.sisters and brothers. She received her primary education at home, her grandmother taught writing, music and art. According to some reports, after ten years, Juna was enrolled in a public school, but the writer herself claimed that she did not receive an education there.

Heart Trauma

There is a fact in the biography of Juna Barnes that left an imprint on her entire subsequent life. At 16, she was sexually abused by a neighbor. True, some sources claim that the father was the rapist. However, father and Juna wrote warm letters to each other until his death in 1934. The writer referred to sexual abuse in the novel Ryder and the play Antiphon. Shortly before her 18th birthday, Djuna Barnes, under pressure from relatives, married 52-year-old Percy Faulkner (brother of Fanny, her father's mistress). The marriage broke up two months later.

Moving New York

In 1912, Juna's mother divorced her husband and left for New York with the children. This move gave Barnes the opportunity to study art at the Pratt Institute, but due to lack of funds, she left her studies after six months. From 1915 to 1916 she attended the Art Students League. To support her family, Juna got a job as a reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, wrote simple publications like “How a Woman Should Dress”, theater reviews, news stories and interviews, she illustrated them herself. Within a few years, her work appeared in almost every New York newspaper.

Private life

In 1915 JunaBarnes moved to Greenwich Village, where famous artists and writers lived. During this period, she met E. Hanfsteingl, a Harvard graduate and friend of T. Roosevelt. Through her connections, Juna has published several collections that have been well received by readers and critics.

In 1916, she met the journalist K. Lemon, with whom they were on close terms. Later, M. Payne became the chosen one of Juna, but in 1919 she died and Juna bitterly mourned her friend. In one of her interviews, the writer said that she never had remorse because of partners, men or women.

Paris Correspondent

In 1921, Barnes went to Paris, where she worked at McCall Megazine. Juna's original reports with famous cultural figures drew attention to the journalist. One of her most famous reports is “Night among the horses”. Juna quickly settled into the new city, a caustic smile and a black cloak became the trademark of the celebrity.

In 1928 she published The Ladies' Almanac about the life of Parisian sexual minorities. In Paris, she met the love of her life, Kansas sculptor Z. Wood. Shortly before her death, the writer will say: "I'm not a lesbian, I just loved Zelma." But the relationship of girlfriends was overshadowed by frequent drinking Z. Wood.

Return to America

Since 1932, Juna has been a guest at the Guggenheim estate in Devonshire, where many famous writers have gathered. Here Barnes wrote the book "Night Forest", the most famous of her works. In the second halfIn the 30s, Juna fell into depression, began to abuse alcohol, drinking a bottle of whiskey a day. After the suicide attempt, the owner of the estate sent Barnes to the USA.

Juna did not find a common language with her mother and in 1940 moved to a small apartment in Greenwich Village. After 10 years, Juna realized what alcohol had turned her into, stopped drinking and set to work on the autobiographical play Antiphon. Despite he alth problems, Djuna Barnes worked 8-hour shifts and returned to poetry. The writer led a reclusive life and died on July 18, 1982.

Night forest

At that time it was something. Juna Barnes had no problems with prestige during the years of her life and work. Her flamboyant, experimental modernist writing method has attracted the attention of many. The style was compared with W. Wolf and even with Lawrence, with the exception of the content of the novel “Night Forest”, which was shocking for those times. After many refusals, T. Eliot undertook to revise and edit the manuscript. In order for Barnes' work to pass the censors, Eliot toned down explicit scenes and words relating to sexuality. Given the length of the book, he did a great job.

In 1995, the book was published by Dalkey Archive Press in its original form. In 1999, it was not only one of the top 100 gay books, but also one of the ten hardest reading books of the 20th century. The novel was first published in England in 1936, and a year later it was published in the United States. The gaps in the content of the book are fully covered by the amazing style of the author. Eliot said that Barnes' living prose wouldunderstandable only to admirers of poetry, only they will be able to fully perceive and appreciate it. However, despite the efforts of T. Eliot and rave reviews from critics, the book "Night Forest" did not bring commercial benefits.

The action of the novel revolves around five characters, we can say that without sexual characteristics, but the prototypes of the characters are easily guessed - the reader recognizes Z. Wood in Robin Vought. The book reflects the mood of the author. At first, the story is rather slow and drawn out, but with the appearance of Dr. O'Connor, albeit a little strange, the plot takes on vitality, style, musicality and perfection, phrases, beauty and wit. When considering the entire composition as a whole, the doctor ceases to be a figure that attracts attention. Against the backdrop of his brilliant monologues, other characters are revealed. At Barnes they are alive, real. As Eliot said, "Night Forest" is a gallery of portraits and characters.

Other books

In 1915, The Book of Repulsive Women, a poetry collection, was published, the theme of which was women: cabaret singers, women seen from the window, the corpses of suicides. The frankness in the description of women's bodies and the abundance of sexual terms shocked and repelled many readers. But some critics saw the collection as a satirical exposé of women. Juna herself subsequently burned copies of the collection and called it "disgusting". But the book was not copyrighted and has been reprinted numerous times.

Ryder, published in 1928, is largely autobiographical. The author talks about the 50-year history of the Ryder family: salon owner Sophie(as Zadel, Juna's grandmother) stranded, slacker son Wendell, his wife Amelia, and daughter Julie. The story is told from the perspective of several characters, the family chronicle alternates with children's stories, letters, songs, parables, poems and dreams.

“Ladies' Almanac” was released in the same year. It tells mainly about women who preferred same-sex love. The action in the almanac is focused on the salon of N. Barney in Paris. The work was written in the Rabelaisian style and supplemented with illustrations by the author. The double entender jokes and dark language of The Ladies' Almanac drew controversy from critics, but Barnes herself loved the book and reread it throughout her life.

Following Antiphon (1958), which premiered in Stockholm in 1961, Barnes published Creatures in an Alphabet (1982), a collection of poems. After the death of the writer, her articles and interviews were published in separate publications. Many plays, stories, poems of the writer are forgotten just like paintings and drawings. She became the last prominent representative of the first generation of modernists. The work of Juna Barnes is being studied, and several books have been written about her life.