Gisèle Pineau, or the Literary Voice of a Caregiver

This article proposes an analysis of Folie, aller simple: Journée ordinaire d'une infirmière by Gisèle Pineau, in which the author recounts her work as a psychiatric nurse. After working for thirty years in a psychiatric hospital in Guadeloupe, Pineau moved to the Paris region where she continued to practice nursing. This memoir describes a typical day in a psychiatric hospital, in particular nurses' interactions with mentally ill patients and Pineau's reflections on her activity as a caregiver and on her role as a writer. By examining how Pineau portrays the confined and isolating environment of the psychiatric hospital and brings attention to the lives of those pushed to the margins, I explore the intersection of the literary, care, and the social perspective. Through this, I argue that one way to conceptualize the social novel in the 21st century is through the lens of care writing.