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Andreas Burnier, born Catharina Irma Dessaur (3 July 1931 – 18 September 2002) was a Dutch writer. Burnier has published poetry, lectures, books and articles, many of which address homosexuality, in order to emphasize women's problems in a male-dominated society.
In her autobiographical novel Jongensuur (Boys' hour, 1969) Burnier describes the wartime experience of a young Jewish girl in hiding in the Netherlands, and her desire to be a boy.
A lot of Burnier's novels are autobiographical like her debut novel Een tevreden lach. Her protagonist struggles with her identity as a developing young woman. De wereld is van glas also contains autobiographical fragments. The main character is looking for a person who can help her reconcile with all the different characters she experiences. She finds this reconciliation in Judaism.
After Burnier's father died she reconciled with Judaism and her books were more oriented on this religion. Het jongensuur is the only book from her earlier work which features a Jewish protagonist.
After the war, in 1949, Andreas Burnier got her Gymnasium-alpha diploma. She then started to study medicine for one and a half-year at the University of Amsterdam. In her opinion, medicine was fairly superficial and not scientifically interesting, which is why she started to study philosophy. Her university professor did not take her seriously, because she was a young woman. She never finished this as she was twenty-two years old when she decided to quit this study in philosophy.
In 1952, Burnier met Johannes Emanuel Zeijlmans van Emmichoven, because of her contacts at the magazine Castrum Peregrini, where Zeijlmans van Emmichoven was an editor. In 1953, Burnier married Zeijlmans van Emmichoven, and had two children with him. Burnier stated that one of the reasons for marrying him was that "it was something everyone was doing", and that she mistook verbal intimacy, recognition and admiration for something else. After eight years of marriage, in 1961, Burnier and Zeijlmans filed for divorce. In an interview from 1977 she stated that the most vital part of her life was wasted, because she was born as a woman. Her life depended on a man and people only took her seriously after she was thirty, because she was no longer considered a marriageable woman. Burnier says in regards to being a woman: "The older, the better." Afterwards, Burnier decided to start studying again. During the time that Burnier was getting her PhD, Burnier met her first female romantic partner; they were together for 17 years.
She decided to study in Leiden as it was more organized than Amsterdam, and because she simply did not want to return to Amsterdam. For a short period of time, she studied mathematics, but this was too time-consuming as she had multiple jobs on the side, which is why she had to choose a different study. She chose philosophy again, and in 1965 she did her doctoral exam. On 2 July 1971, she graduated cum laude, and received her PhD in criminology. Even before her official graduation she was appointed as a lecturer in criminology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen on 1 July 1971. From 1973 until 1988 Burnier was a criminology professor at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. Prior to this, she worked with the Ministry of CRM and the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology in Leiden. Beginning in 1983, Burnier had a relationship with Ineke van Mourik. Burnier died unexpectedly in Amsterdam at the age of 71 due to a stroke. She was buried at the Liberaal Joodse Begraafplaats Gan Hasjalom in Hoofddorp.
She tried to turn her own name in a pseudonym which resulted in the name Andreas. After many failed attempts, she chose a name that was familiar to her. A jeweler's family with the name Burnier lived in The Hague. In addition, one of the streets is called the Burniersstraat, which housed the editorial secretariat of Hollands Maandblad, a literary magazine. This was a magazine Burnier would later publish in.
In an interview with Klaas Pereboom, she stated that she does not have a first name. Officially she is called Catharina Irma, but in the war she was called Ronnie, and in her adolescence she was called Reinier, after a pseudonym she once used, and later people used the name Andreas. She said she had a hard time with the fact that she did not have a real name, but stated that it could not be solved anymore.
Pseudonym
Burnier chose a pseudonym, because she wanted to keep her private person strictly separated from her literary person. This was necessary, because she did not want to be known as the author of a possibly controversial book, which could have hurt her academic career. She chose a male pseudonym, because it was easier if she was not seen as a female writer, as female writers were often seen as if they were all the same. Later, when her true identity was revealed, this still happened to her.
Bibliography
in Dutch
Her works include:Worldcat.org
in English
in German
Further reading
See also
Categories: 1931 Births, 2002 Deaths, 20th-century Dutch Poets, 20th-century Dutch Novelists, 20th-century Dutch Women Writers, Dutch Criminologists, Dutch Women Novelists, Dutch Women Poets, Dutch Lgbtq Rights Activists, Pseudonymous Women Writers, Academic Staff Of Radboud University Nijmegen, Writers From The Hague, Dutch Women Criminologists, Dutch Lgbtq Poets, Dutch Lgbtq Novelists, 20th-century Pseudonymous Writers, 20th-century Dutch Lgbtq People
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