“I Who Have Never Known Men,” originally published as “Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes” is a 1995 dystopian fiction novel by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman. In 2022, it was translated by Ros Schwartz, making it the first of Harpman’s novels to be translated into English. “I Who Have Never Known Men” was a finalist for the 1995 Prix Fermina, a French literary prize awarded by an exclusively female jury.
The book follows a group of 40 women who are being held captive in an underground bunker for a reason that is unknown to them. The novel’s narrator, the youngest of the women, is the only one who does not remember life before the bunker. She is also the only character who is nameless, being referred to only as “the girl” by the other women. The group lives under constant surveillance by a rotating staff of three guards, all male. The bunker lacks any natural light or privacy, and the women are forced to live in indignity. Having given up hope of ever being set free, they pass the time by talking to each other, however they are not permitted to ever touch. “The girl” is often excluded from these conversations, feeling isolated as the only one with no memory of the outside world. She often asks questions about the world before but is initially shut down by the other women as they believe it is pointless to tell her of a world she will never know.
Readers feel the girl’s frustration as her questions go unanswered. It’s human nature to want answers and explanations, even if the knowledge is not immediately useful. It is difficult for both readers and the girl to accept the lack of explanation for why the women are being held captive.
One day, inexplicably, an alarm sounds within the bunker, and the guards flee. In the process, the set of keys to unlock the cage is dropped within reach of the women. The girl is quick to grab them, opening the cage and encouraging the other women to leave, however, they are more reluctant. Eventually, all of the women leave the bunker, climbing a set of stairs to the outside world. They find themselves alone on a seemingly endless landscape, with no guards or other signs of life within sight. Being left to survive on their own, the women choose to venture away from their bunker.
“I Who Have Never Known Men” adds a unique perspective to the landscape of feminist dystopian literature. Instead of a society policed by men, as in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Harpman explores the interpersonal relationships between women exclusively, told from the perspective of a woman who has never known anything else. How do women behave when they are free of the expectations of men? When they have no obligation to traditional domestic duties: chores, sex, children or their appearance?
As the women travel across the terrain, they combine their knowledge and skills for survival. They take care of each other, paying special attention to their oldest and most fragile group members. As they travel, they discover other bunkers, identical to their own, filled with deceased men and women in locked cages. They find no guards and still have no answers as to why they were being held in captivity. Years pass, and the women create a settlement for themselves, building homes out of the plain’s resources. They create a sort of community, settling into a domestic life that is peaceful, yet melancholy.
Many more years pass, and slowly, the older women begin to die from various age-related complications. Eventually, the girl is the only one left. She continues to explore the plain, in search of anyone else that may be alive. She grows old, herself, and eventually dies alone, without any explanation of her situation.
Exploring a wide range of themes, including isolation, intimacy, the meaning of life, loss and the power of knowledge, there are so many things to take away from this novel. The lack of a clear resolution frustrated me, but I believe that was the author’s intent, to make readers feel the way the girl did. “I Who Have Never Known Men” demonstrates the importance of human connection in our understanding of the world.
