Chronobiography

In 1919, Deligny, a war orphan, is recognized as a “Ward of the Nation.” He studies under the guidance of his maternal grandfather and is considered an excellent pupil. In the 1920s, he moves to Lille, practices non-denominational scouting, and finishes his secondary education in 1931.

Deligny lives in Paris with Josette Saleil, whom he met in Lille. In 1938, the father of François Châtelet (Deligny’s childhood friend) offers him a post as a substitute teacher in the primary school on Rue de la Brèche-aux-Loups, where Deligny will remain for four months. He finishes the school year working at a different school in Nogent-sur-Marne. His educational “methods” reject the use of notebooks and instead include walks with students in the Bois de Vincennes and games of mimicry. In 1939 Deligny accepts another post, this time at the Armentières asylum (renamed the Psychiatric Hospital two years earlier), one of the most important institutions of mental health in France. He marries Josette Salieil and moves to Armentières.

The asylum is bombarded. Deligny becomes an educator in Pavillon 3, where he is responsible for children considered “impaired and impossible to educate.” There, he declares the end of punishment and organizes workshops, games and walks with guardians (unemployed workers, artisans, former convicts). In 1942 he earns his credentials to teach children with learning “impairments.”

Pavillon 3 is published along with a series of articles in Pour l’enfance coupable (published by the Ministry of Justice for the study and prevention of crime), with Paul Guilbert (director of the IMP). Lille is liberated in September.

Publication of Puissants personnages, dedicated to Catherine, the daughter of Deligny and Josette born the year prior. In May the directorship of Arsea relieves Deligny of his duties. He goes on to run a training course for educators in Montesson (Yvelines), but shortly afterward asks to be separated from the charge. He meets Hugette Dumoulin, a communist militant responsible for the Center of Youth Hostels in Paris. Deligny is named Regional Director of Labor and Culture. He organizes a series of film projections and meets cinema critic André Bazin and the documentarian Chris Marker.

The statutes of the Grande Cordée, presided over by Henri Wallon, are published. The administrative council is composed of communist militants. The first adolescents are entrusted to the institution. Deligny joins the PCF (French Communist Party), sending his enrollment card to Maurice Thorez (secretary general of the PCF between 1940 and 1964) with a copy of Vagabonds efficaces. Deligny is invited to be a party candidate in municipal elections, but he declines.

Deligny begins to correspond with Irène Lézine, a psychologist, PCF militant, and the author of a biography on Anton Sémionovitch Makarenko. Deligny plans a film about the experience at Grande Cordée (although only a few sequences are filmed). Since 1948 the network has received 134 adolescents and would remain in operation –precariously– until the early 1960s.

Filming for Moindre Geste.

On July 14, Deligny leaves La Borde and takes up residence at Gourgas, within a property owned by Félix Guattari that had been transformed into a meeting place for far-left intellectuals and militants. Deligny writes pamphlets against the Vietnam War.

Deligny begins a new endeavor with autistic children. Maud Mannoni, Françoise Dolto and Émile Monnerot (head of psychiatry at the Marseille psychiatric hospital) refer to him the first children. Jacques Lin takes up residency in Graniers, where Janmari remains. Other children live in Monoblet. This is the original network. The first letters and lines of error. Publication of Cahiers de l’Aire, in which Deligny would participate until 1972.

In 1972, after viewing Le Moindre Geste, Renaud Victor visits Deligny with his brother, who has autistic symptoms. Victor intends to make a film about the network and establish himself in Monoblet. This is the beginning of the collaboration between Deligny and Victor.

Publication of Nous et l’innocent, written by Isaac Joseph, and three issues of Cahiers de l’immuable, by the magazine Recherches. Ce Gamin là is presented at the Grenoble Film Festival. The film, screened at cinemas in Paris as well as in special educational environments, is followed by articles, reviews and journalistic coverage. In mid-1976, Deligny begins his correspondence with Louis Althusser, whom he would visit in 1977. Deligny requests from the INA (National Audiovisual Institute) the material necessary to mount a video unit.

Publicação de Singulière ethnie; maio: exposição Cartes et figures de la terre no Centro Pompidou; setembro, publicação de La septième face Du dé e de um dossiê em La Quinzaine littéraire sobre Deligny; novembro: publicação de Enfants et le silence. Montagem das sequências gravadas na rede por Pierre Deiber, para o Centro regional para a infância e adolescência inadptadas de Lyon, sob o título Le faire et l’Agir – acompanhdo pela voz off de Deligny, o documentário será usado na formação de educadores.

 Drafting of Acheminement ver l’image.

Deligny is hospitalized with a double stomach ulcer. The network is decommissioned, but Deligny, Jacques Lin, and Gisèle Durand remain in Graniers with Cristophe B., Janmari and Gilles T. 1985: Deligny and Renaud Victor write a script for a full-length film entitled Toits d’asile, the filming of which would be interrupted and finally resumed, resulting in the film Fernand Deligny. À propos d’un film à faire, produced together with television broadcasters. 1988: Deligny begins to write an autobiographic account entitled L’Enfant de citadelle, although he would abandon it in 1993.

Janmari dies on June 11.