Bretons: In To make life lighter, you recall that literature was, during your childhood, a “talisman against boredom”. Why ?
Mona Ozouf: My childhood was very claustral. I am 4 years old when my father (Yann Sohier, schoolteacher, militant of the Breton language and founder of the bulletin Ar Falz, note) dies. My mother is a teacher in Plouha and, as such, we live in the school. As a child, I never, or almost never, leave this school group. Except for going to catechism on Thursday and mass on Sunday. Our accommodation overlooks the schoolyard, which is hopelessly empty since there is no class or during the holidays. I grew up with my mother and my grandmother, two melancholy women. The first because she is engulfed in grief since the death of her husband, the second because she considers that women did not come into the world to be happy. Fortunately, in this house, there is compulsive everything that comes to hand. In Plouha, the book is a way to get over these sad days.
What is your first reading memory?
A Dutch tale translated into Breton: Prinsezig an dour , The Little Water Princess . I have a very specific memory of the story of this little girl abandoned and raised by a tribe of frogs. This book, with its decorations of reeds, water lilies on which Lizig, the little girl jumps up and down, enchanted me. It was the first “real book” I read, and it was in Breton. I think I almost learned to read with him. At what age ? I cannot say precisely, but I was very young. I am 2 years old when my mother, to be quiet on my account, installs me at the bottom of her class, a unique kindergarten class, with sixty children aged 2 years to 6 years. Like all the other children, I give her “madame”. And by listening to the lessons it gives to adults, I can read without having learned it.
Are you still able to read in Breton?
Yes, even if I sometimes stumble. For lack of practice, I now need a dictionary. My reading is not as smooth as it used to be. I did not cultivate this initial gift of existence: being bilingual. I should have, I didn't. It is a regret, a remorse too.
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Find the full interview in Bretons magazine n ° 165 of June 2020.
This article is produced by Bretons magazine and hosted by 20 Minutes.
- History
- Philosophy
- Books
- Literature
- Culture
- Bretons
- Reindeer