Laurence Bougault

Laurence Bougault (25August 197026October 2018) was a French writer and academic. She was also well known as a long-distance adventurer on horseback.

Biography Bougault studied literature in Lyon in preparation for university studies in Paris. Certified in Modern Letters in 1992, she defended her Ph.D. dissertation in French literature at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 under the supervision of Philippe Hamon, which was titled Cosmos and Logos in Modern Poetry. Appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Rennes in 1998, she moved to Brittany. In 2005, she began directing research at the Sorbonne University, under the direction of linguist Olivier Soutet. She supervised the dissertation of Stéphane Gallon at the University of Rennes, in 2013.

Bougault regularly published poems and essays on literary criticism and French stylistics as well as educational works. Her research was centered on two themes: the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in literary work, and the question of the effects of meaning produced by the syntactic choices in modern and contemporary poetry. At the same time, Bougault wrote and published newsletters, poetry, essays and short stories.

She received the Discovery grant in 2002 from the country's Centre National du Livre (National Center for Books) to continue her research. Whether in poetry or in prose, Bougault's writing sought to address the intensity of the “body-mind” states and the way in which these states work together.

Bougault then began breeding a refined and rare equine, the Akhal-Teke, a Turkmen race horse and prized for its endurance, intelligence, and the distinctive sheen of its coat.

She was interviewed near the conclusion of that trek, after she reached Fontainebleau, near Paris. I think I fulfilled my mission as an “Amazon of peace” especially in Iran and Turkey where the people I met were surprised to see a Westerner who accepted their rules and who conveyed values that were theirs. All this has created strong links between these countries and me.

Last years Bougault died from an illness at the age of 48 on 26 October 2018 in Rennes, and was survived by her son and parents.

Selected publications

Essays

Poésie et réalité (Poetry and reality), essay based on her dissertation: Cosmos et logos dans la poésie moderne, L’Harmattan, 2005. Guillevic et la langue, actes du colloque éponyme, Rennes, éditions Calliopées, 2009. Stylistiques?, actes du colloque éponyme (co-direction), Rennes, PUR, 2010. Lorand Gaspar et la langue (co-direction), éditions styl-m de l’AIS, 2011. Le style, découpeur du réel (co-direction), PUR, 2014.

Poems

Le Grand Jouir, recueil poétique, Le Rewidiage, 1998. Éclats, recueil de poèmes publiés avec le concours du CNL, éditions du Sandre, 2003. . Extracts published in Poésie Terrestre, no. 8, December 1996 et La femelle du requin no. 7, February–March 1997. Espoir, poème, dans Poésie Terrestre no. 7, 1996. Le Grand Jouir, extrait, dans Phréatique no. 83, Autumn 1997. Ode famélique de Toi, poème, dans L’igloo dans la dune no. 92, June 1999. Irradiance, poème, dans L’igloo dans la dune no. 94, December 1999. Poétiques, poèmes, dans Hématomes Crochus HC9, March 2001. L’attente et le chemin, dans Hématomes Crochus HC13, 2003.

Works about horses

Chevauchons ensemble, Histoires d’amour et de chevaux (avec Jean-Louis Gouraud), éditions du Rocher, 2005. Éclats de chevauchées & Poèmes d’Amour-Cheval, éd. Cheval-Culture, 2012. Sous l’œil des chevaux d’Afrique (Under the Eye of African Horses) coll. Les cavalières de l'aventure, Belin, 2003, Chevaux entiers et étalons, mieux les connaître, mieux les comprendre, éd. du Rocher, 2009. La Liberté du Centaure, petit traité sur le voyage à cheval, Transboréal, 2010, Amazone de la Paix, tome 1 et 2, éd. Cheval-Culture, 2013, La liberta del cavalcare, piccolo trattato sul viaggio a cavallo, Ediciclo, Approches linguistiques du vocabulaire équestre, coédition Cheval-Culture/Presses Universitaires de Rennes/Cadre noir de Saumur, 2015, Le Cheval et l’amour (avec J.-L. Gouraud), Les Cahiers Arts Equestres, coll. Actes équestres, Actes Sud, 2016. Égo-Dictionnaire du cheval, Pietraserena, éd. Dumane, 2017.