Partner Ineke van Mourik
Queer Places:
Liberaal Joodse Begraafplaats Gan Hasjalom
Hoofddorp, Haarlemmermeer Municipality, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Andreas Burnier, born Catharina Irma Dessaur (3 July 1931 – 18 September 2002) was a Dutch writer.[1][2] 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.[3]
Burnier was born Catharina Irma Dessaur in The Hague, The Netherlands to Jewish parents Salomon Dessaur and Rosa Louisa Jacobs.[2][4] Like many other Jewish children in Europe, she went into hiding during World War II,[8] and was separated from her parents for three years (1942–1945), hiding in sixteen different locations under the alias Ronnie van Dijk.[4] During her time in hiding, Burnier became aware of the lack of rights that women experience in a male-dominated society and began to feel like she was a boy trapped in a girl's body.[3] 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,[2] and had two children with him.[4] 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.[4] 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, she met her first female romantic partner; they were together for 17 years.[4] 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.
Burnier debuted in the literary magazine Tirade with her story Verschrikkingen van het Noorden.[4][5] Along with assuming a new name as a writer, Burnier also assumed the opposite gender.[5] In 1965, she published her first novel, Een tevreden lach[6] (the title of which translates as something like "A Contented Laugh"). In it she wrote about her homosexuality, a topic that had previously not been widely discussed in Dutch literature.[4] She did not mean to publish this novel at first as she wrote it for herself due to the need of reflection, and she deemed it unfit for publication, but after coming into contact with a manager who worked at Querido, who wanted to read it, it became published. Een tevreden lach was well received by critics who praised its original structural elements.[3] The book is considered to be one of the first novels of second-wave feminism as it was about a young woman that lives her own life despite social oppression.[citation needed] She followed this work with a collection of short stories entitled De verschrikkingen van het noorden (1967) and a novel, Het jongensuur (1969), supplementing this work with a series of poetry, book reviews and articles.[6]
On 2 July 1971, she graduated cum laude, and received her PhD in criminology.[4] 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.[5] Prior to this, she worked with the Ministry of CRM and the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology in Leiden.[5] Beginning in 1983, Burnier had a relationship with Ineke van Mourik (born 1949).[2] Burnier died unexpectedly in Amsterdam at the age of 71 due to a stroke.[2] She was buried at the Liberaal Joodse Begraafplaats Gan Hasjalom in Hoofddorp.
My published books:
