René Galand

René Galand
Born Reun ar C'halan
(1923-01-27) January 27, 1923
Châteauneuf-du-Faou (Finistère), France
Occupation Academic, literary critic, author
Genre Poetry and short stories, autobiography

René Marie Galand (Reun ar C'halan in Breton) (January 27, 1923 - ) is a writer and Professor of French. He was born in Châteauneuf-du-Faou in Brittany.

Biography

René Galand was born on January 27, 1923, in Châteauneuf-du-Faou (Finistère), to a family of farmers. He was still quite young when his father, like many other Bretons from the area, emigrated to the United States, where his wife joined him later. Their two children remained in Brittany for their education, René, a boarder in a lycée, in Quimper at first, and then in Brest, and his sister in a boarding school for girls, first in Carhaix, then in Quimperlé. They spent the holidays in Châteauneuf with their grandparents.

René Galand received his baccalauréat in mathematics in 1941 in Brest. He pursued his studies in Rennes, where he received a second baccalauréat in philosophy in 1942 and the licence ès lettres in 1944. He had also successfully completed the competitive entrance examinations for the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French Military Academy. At the end of 1942, he made his first contacts with the French Resistance, and in June 1944, following the Allied landings in Normandy, he fought for the liberation of France. Promoted to "aspirant" in October 1944, he was sent to the École Militaire Inter-Armes of Cherchell (Algeria), which was later transferred to Koetkidan. Promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in June 1945, he was sent to the French Forces of Occupation in Germany. At the end of 1946, he resigned his commission in the active service and joined his parents and his sister in the United States.

Galand taught at Yale University as a teaching assistant while pursuing his doctoral studies. He received his Ph.D. in French literature in 1952. From 1951 to 1993, he taught at Wellesley College, lecturing primarily on 19th and 20th century French literature He served as chair of the French Department from 1968 to 1972.

René Galand is the author of numerous studies of French writers from Chateaubriand, Renan and Baudelaire to Camus, Robbe-Grillet and the Oulipo. His publications include five books, collective works, articles and reviews which have appeared in such journals as The French Review, The Romantic Review, Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, Revue de littérature comparée, PMLA, Yale French Studies, Symposium, Dada/Surrealism, and World Literature Today. He also has published essays on American writers (Melville, T. S. Eliot, Lovecraft, Kerouac) and the Spanish poet Jorge Guillén.

Under the Breton form of his name, Reun ar C'halan, he has published extensively in Breton: poems (three volumes), short stories (one volume), autobiography (two volumes), as well as many individual poems, short stories, and critical studies about Breton literature as well as reviews of books written in the Breton language. The latter have appeared in collections of his works and in such journals as Skrid, Poésie-Bretagne, Pobl Vreizh, Barr-Heol, Keltoi, Bro Nevez, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Keltica, and World Literature Today. He has also given papers at meetings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium and of Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA) and taken part in the work of the American branch of the International Committee for the Defense of the Breton Language. Some of his works have been translated and published in other languages: French, English, German, Welsh, Dutch, and Polish. Critics have ranked him among the best Breton writers of his generation.

Prizes

In 1971, Galand was awarded the Palmes Académiques by the government of France for his contributions to the study of French literature. In 1979, he received the Xavier de Langlais Prize for his first collection of poems, Levr ar Blanedenn (The Book of Fate), and, in 2003, the Imram Prize for his Breton literary writings.

Publications

A complete bibliography of Galand's writings up to 2005 has been published in the Breton journal Al Liamm[1] Since that date, other works have appeared: a collection of short stories A-bell hag a-dost (So far and so near). Another short story, "Lizher eus ar vered," appeared in Al Liamm (April 2006).

Books

Collections

Articles

Uncollected poems

Bibliography

Articles and reviews about René Galand / Reun ar C'halan

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ August 2005, no 353, pp. 98–117
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