Jean Genet ( – ) was a prominent and controversial
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
novelist,
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
,
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing. His major works include the novels
Querelle of BrestQuerelle of Brest is a novel by the French writer Jean Genet. It was written in 1947 and first published in 1953. It is set in the midst of the port town of Brest, where sailors and the sea are associated with murder, and its protagonist is Georges Querelle. The novel formed the basis for Rainer...
,
The Thief's JournalThe Thief's Journal is perhaps Jean Genet's most famous work. It is a part- fact, part-fiction autobiography that charts the author's progress through Europe in a curiously depoliticized 1930s, wearing nothing but rags and enduring hunger, contempt, fatigue and vice. Spain, Italy, Austria,...
, and
Our Lady of the FlowersOur Lady of the Flowers is the debut novel of French writer Jean Genet, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely autobiographical account of a man's journey through the Parisian underworld...
, and the plays
The BalconyThe Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
,
The BlacksThe Blacks: A Clown Show is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris, which opened on 28 October 1959....
,
The MaidsThe Maids is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed...
and
The ScreensThe Screens is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Its first few productions all used abridged versions, beginning with its world première under Hans Lietzau's direction in Berlin in May 1961...
.
Life
Genet's mother was a young prostitute who raised him for the first year of his life before putting him up for
adoptionAdoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. Thereafter Genet was raised in the provinces by a carpenter and his family, who according to
Edmund WhiteEdmund Valentine White III is an American author and literary critic. He is a member of the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing.- Life and work :Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he largely grew up in Chicago...
's
biographyA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
, were loving and attentive. While he received excellent grades in school, his childhood involved a series of attempts at running away and incidents of petty
theftIn criminal law, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, fraud and sometimes...
(although White also suggests that Genet's later claims of a dismal, impoverished childhood were exaggerated to fit his outlaw image).
After the death of his foster mother, Genet was placed with an elderly couple but remained with them less than two years. According to the wife, "he was going out nights and also seemed to be wearing makeup." On one occasion he squandered a considerable sum of money, which they had entrusted him for delivery elsewhere, on a visit to a local fair. For this and other misdemeanors, including repeated acts of vagrancy, he was sent at the age of 15 to
Mettray Penal ColonyMettray Penal Colony, situated in the small village of Mettray, in the French département of Indre-et-Loire, just north of the city of Tours, was a private reformatory, without walls, opened in 1840 for the rehabilitation of young male delinquents aged between 6 and 21. At that time children and...
where he was detained between 2 September 1926 and 1 March 1929. In
The Miracle of the RoseThe Miracle of the Rose is a 1946 book by Jean Genet about experiences as a detainee in Mettray Penal Colony and Fontevrault prison - although there is no direct evidence of Genet ever having been imprisoned in the latter establishment...
(1946), he gives an account of this period of detention, which ended at the age of 18 when he joined the
Foreign LegionThe French Foreign Legion is a unique unit in the French Army, established in 1831. The legion was specifically created for foreign nationals wishing to serve in the French Armed Forces, but commanded by French officers. However, it is also open to French citizens, who amount to 24% of recruits...
. He was eventually given a dishonorable discharge on grounds of indecency (having been caught engaged in a homosexual act) and spent a period as a vagabond, petty thief and prostitute across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
— experiences he recounts in
The Thief's JournalThe Thief's Journal is perhaps Jean Genet's most famous work. It is a part- fact, part-fiction autobiography that charts the author's progress through Europe in a curiously depoliticized 1930s, wearing nothing but rags and enduring hunger, contempt, fatigue and vice. Spain, Italy, Austria,...
(1949). After returning to Paris, France in 1937, Genet was in and out of prison through a series of arrests for theft, use of false papers,
vagabondageA vagrant is a person in a situation of poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income. Many towns in the Developed World have shelters for vagrants. Common terminology is a tramp or a 'gentleman of the road'....
, lewd acts and other offenses. In prison, Genet wrote his first poem, "Le condamné à mort," which he had printed at his own cost, and the novel
Our Lady of the FlowersOur Lady of the Flowers is the debut novel of French writer Jean Genet, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely autobiographical account of a man's journey through the Parisian underworld...
(1944). In Paris, Genet sought out and introduced himself to
Jean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker...
, who was impressed by his writing. Cocteau used his contacts to get Genet's novel published, and in 1949, when Genet was threatened with a life sentence after ten convictions, Cocteau and other prominent figures including
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
and
Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
successfully petitioned the French President to have the sentence set aside. Genet would never return to prison.
By 1949 Genet had completed five novels, three plays and numerous poems. His explicit and often deliberately provocative portrayal of
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
and criminality was such that by the early 1950s his work was banned in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Sartre wrote a long analysis of Genet's
existentialLike “rationalism” and “empiricism,” “existentialism” is a term that belongs to intellectual history. Its definition is thus to some extent one of historical convenience...
development (from vagrant to writer) entitled
Saint GenetSaint Genet, Actor and Martyr is a book by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre about the writer Jean Genet. It was first published in 1952...
(1952) which was anonymously published as the first volume of Genet's complete works. Genet was strongly affected by Sartre's analysis and did not write for the next five years. Between 1955 and 1961 Genet wrote three more plays as well as an essay called "What Remains of a Rembrandt Torn Into Four Equal Pieces and Flushed Down the Toilet", on which hinged
Jacques DerridaJacques Derrida was a French philosopher born in Algeria, who is known as the founder of deconstruction. His voluminous work had a profound impact upon literary theory and continental philosophy...
's analysis of Genet in his seminal work "Glas". During this time he became emotionally attached to Abdallah, a tightrope walker. However, following a number of accidents and Abdallah's
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
in 1964, Genet entered a period of
depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, even attempting suicide himself.
From the late 1960s, starting with a homage to
Daniel Cohn-BenditDaniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a German politician, active in France and Germany, and was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France. He was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge...
after the events of May 1968, Genet became politically active. He participated in demonstrations drawing attention to the living conditions of immigrants in France. In 1970 the Black Panthers invited him to the USA where he stayed for three months giving lectures, attending the trial of their leader, Huey Newton, and publishing articles in their journals. Later the same year he spent six months in
PalestinianThe Palestinian territories are composed of two discontiguous regions, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, whose final status has yet to be determined. The territories, which were originally contained within the British Mandate of Palestine, were captured and occupied by Jordan and by Egypt in the...
refugee camps, secretly meeting
Yasser ArafatMohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah political...
near Amman. Profoundly moved by his experiences in
JordanJordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia spanning the southern part of the Syrian Desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba. Jordan shares borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the northeast, Saudi Arabia to the east and south, the Gulf of Aqaba to the southwest,...
and the USA, Genet wrote a final lengthy memoir about his experiences,
A Prisoner of Love, which would be published posthumously. Genet also supported
Angela DavisAngela Yvonne Davis is an American political activist and university professor who was associated with the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Davis was also a notable activist during the Civil Rights Movement and a prominent member and...
and
George JacksonGeorge Lester Jackson was an American convict, who became a communist and a member of the Black Panther Party while in prison, where he spent the last 12 years of his life...
, as well as
Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, sociologist and historian. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.Foucault is best known for his critical studies of...
and
Daniel Defert'sDaniel Defert is a prominent French AIDS activist and the founding president of the first AIDS awareness organization in France, AIDES. He started the organization after the death of his partner, the French philosopher Michel Foucault...
Prison Information Group. He worked with Foucault and Sartre to protest
police brutalityPolice brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer. It is in some instances triggered by "contempt of cop", i.e., perceived disrespect towards police officers.Widespread...
against Algerians in Paris, a problem persisting since the
Algerian War of IndependenceThe Algerian War, also known as the Algerian War of Independence or in , was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France...
, when beaten bodies were to be found floating in the
SeineThe Seine is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite...
. In September 1982 Genet was in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
when the massacres took place in the Palestinian camps of
Sabra and ShatilaThe Sabra and Shatila massacre — or Sabra and Chatila massacre — was a massacre of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians carried out between 16 and 18 September 1982 by the Lebanese Forces militia group, following the assassination of Phalangist leader and president-elect Bachir Gemayel...
. In response, Genet published "Quatre heures à Chatila" ("Four Hours in Shatila"), an account of his visit to Shatila after the event. In one of his rare public appearances during the later period of his life, at the invitation of Austrian philosopher
Hans KöchlerHans Köchler is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and president of the International Progress Organization, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations...
he read from his work during the inauguration of an exhibition on the massacre of Sabra and Shatila organized by the
International Progress OrganizationThe International Progress Organization is a Vienna-based think tank dealing with world affairs. As an international non-governmental organization it enjoys consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is associated with the United Nations Department of...
in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
, on 19 December 1983. (
Genet in Vienna)
Genet developed throat
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
and was found dead on April 15, 1986 in a hotel room in Paris. Genet may have fallen on the floor and fatally hit his head. He is buried in the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
Cemetery in
Larache'Larache' العرائش in Arabic is an important harbour town in the region Tanger-Tétouan in northern Morocco. It was founded in the 7th century when a group of Muslim soldiers from Arabia extended their camp at Lixus onto the south bank of the Loukkos River.In 1471, the Portuguese settlers from Asilah...
,
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
.
Novels and autobiography
Throughout his five early novels, Genet works to subvert the traditional set of
moral valuesMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
of his assumed readership. He celebrates a beauty in
evilEvil, in many cultures, is a broad term used to describe what are seen as subjectively harmful deeds that are labeled as such to steer moral support. Evil is usually contrasted with good, which describes acts that are subjectively beneficial to the observer. In some religions, evil is an active...
, emphasizes his singularity, raises violent criminals to
iconAn icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism...
s, and enjoys the specificity of gay gesture and coding and the depiction of scenes of betrayal.
Our Lady of the FlowersOur Lady of the Flowers is the debut novel of French writer Jean Genet, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely autobiographical account of a man's journey through the Parisian underworld...
(
Notre Dame des Fleurs 1943) is a journey through the prison underworld, featuring a fictionalized alter-ego by the name of Divine, usually referred to in the feminine, at the center of a circle of
tantes ("aunties" or "queens") with colorful sobriquets such as Mimosa I, Mimosa II, First Communion and the Queen of Rumania. The two auto-fictional novels,
The Miracle of the RoseThe Miracle of the Rose is a 1946 book by Jean Genet about experiences as a detainee in Mettray Penal Colony and Fontevrault prison - although there is no direct evidence of Genet ever having been imprisoned in the latter establishment...
(
Miracle de la rose 1946) and
The Thief's JournalThe Thief's Journal is perhaps Jean Genet's most famous work. It is a part- fact, part-fiction autobiography that charts the author's progress through Europe in a curiously depoliticized 1930s, wearing nothing but rags and enduring hunger, contempt, fatigue and vice. Spain, Italy, Austria,...
(
Journal du voleur 1949), describe Genet's time in
Mettray Penal ColonyMettray Penal Colony, situated in the small village of Mettray, in the French département of Indre-et-Loire, just north of the city of Tours, was a private reformatory, without walls, opened in 1840 for the rehabilitation of young male delinquents aged between 6 and 21. At that time children and...
and his experiences as a vagabond and prostitute across Europe.
Querelle de Brest (1947) is set in the midst of the port town of Brest, where sailors and the sea are associated with
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
; and
Funeral RitesFuneral Rites is a 1949 novel by Jean Genet. It is a story of love and betrayal across political divides, written this time for the narrator's lover, Jean Decarnin, killed by the Germans in WWII....
(1949) is a story of love and betrayal across political divides, written this time for the narrator's lover, Jean Decarnin, killed by the
GermansGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
in
WWIIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Prisoner of Love-In music:*"Prisoner of Love ", a 1931 song popularized by Russ Columbo and revived by Perry Como and by James Brown*"Prisoner of Love", a song by Foreigner.*"Prisoner of Love ", a 1984 song by Miami Sound Machine...
published in 1986, after Genet's death, is a memoir of his encounters with Palestinian fighters and Black Panthers; it has, therefore, a more documentary tone than his fiction.
Plays
Genet's plays present highly-stylized depictions of ritualistic struggles between outcasts of various kinds and their oppressors. Social identities are parodied and shown to involve complex layering through manipulation of the dramatic fiction and its inherent potential for theatricality and role-play; maids
imitateMimesis is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include: imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the presentation of the self...
one another and their mistress in
The MaidsThe Maids is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed...
(1947); or the clients of a brothel simulate roles of political power before, in a dramatic reversal, actually becoming those figures, all surrounded by mirrors that both reflect and conceal, in
The BalconyThe Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
(1957). Most strikingly, Genet offers a critical dramatisation of what
Aimé CésaireAimé Fernand David Césaire was an Afro-Martinican francophone poet, author and politician.-Student, Educator, and Poet:...
called
negritudeNégritude is a literary and political movement developed in France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas. The Négritude writers found solidarity in a common black identity as a rejection...
in
The BlacksThe Blacks: A Clown Show is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris, which opened on 28 October 1959....
(1959), presenting a violent assertion of Black identity and anti-white virulence framed in terms of mask-wearing and roles adopted and discarded. His most overtly-political play is
The ScreensThe Screens is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Its first few productions all used abridged versions, beginning with its world première under Hans Lietzau's direction in Berlin in May 1961...
(1964), an epic account of the Algerian War of Independence. He also wrote another full-length drama,
Splendid's, in 1948 and a one-act play,
Her (
Elle), in 1955, though neither was published or produced during Genet's lifetime.
The BlacksThe Blacks: A Clown Show is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris, which opened on 28 October 1959....
was, after
The BalconyThe Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
, the second of Genet's plays to be staged in New York. The production was the longest running
off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
non-musical of the decade. Originally premiered in Paris in 1959, this 1961 New York production ran for 1,408 performances. The original cast featured
James Earl JonesJames Earl Jones is an American actor of stage and screen, well known for his deep basso voice. To modern audiences, he is best known for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, and Mufasa in The Lion King.-Childhood:Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, the son of Ruth...
,
Roscoe Lee BrowneRoscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the son of Baptist minister Sylvanus Browne and his wife Lovie...
,
Louis Gossett, Jr.-Early life:Gossett, Jr. was born in Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York to Hellen Rebecca , a nurse, and Louis Gossett, Sr., a porter...
,
Cicely TysonCicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for appearances in the film Sounder and the television specials The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots.-Personal life:...
,
Godfrey CambridgeGodfrey MacArthur Cambridge was an American comedian and actor. He was especially popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a regular guest on The Merv Griffin Show and other talk shows...
,
Maya AngelouMaya Angelou is an American autobiographer and poet. Having been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton, she is best known for her series of six autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences...
and
Charles GordoneCharles Edward Gordone was an American playwright, actor, director, and educator. He was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and devoted much of his professional life to the pursuit of multi-racial American theater and racial unity.-Early years:Born Charles Edward...
.
Film
In 1950, Genet directed
Un Chant d'AmourUn Chant d'Amour is French writer Jean Genet's only film, which he directed in 1950. Because of its explicit homosexual content, the 26-minute movie was long banned and even disowned by Genet later in his life....
, a 26-minute black-and-white film depicting the
fantasiesA fantasy is a situation imagined by an individual or group, which does not correspond with reality but expresses certain desires or aims of its creator. Fantasies typically involve situations which are impossible or highly unlikely...
of a gay male prisoner and his prison warden.
Genet's work has also been adapted for film and produced by other filmmakers. In 1982,
Rainer Werner FassbinderRainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
released
QuerelleQuerelle, a 1982 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, adapted from French author Jean Genet's 1947 novel Querelle de Brest. It marked Fassbinder's final film as a writer/director; it was posthumously released just months after the director died of a drug overdose in June 1982.- Plot :The plot...
, his final film, which was based on
Querelle de Brest. It starred
Brad DavisRobert Creel "Brad" Davis was an American actor, best known for his role in the 1978 film Midnight Express.-Early life:...
,
Jeanne MoreauJeanne Moreau is a French actress, screenwriter and director.Moreau made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
and
Franco Nero-Personal life:Nero was born Francesco Sparanero in San Prospero, Emilia-Romagna, and grew up in Bedonia and in Milan. He studied briefly at the Economy and Trade faculty of the local university, before leaving to study at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano....
. Genet never saw the film because smoking was not allowed in movie theatres.
Tony RichardsonCecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
directed a film,
Mademoiselle, which was based on a short story by Genet. It starred
Jeanne MoreauJeanne Moreau is a French actress, screenwriter and director.Moreau made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
with the screenplay written by
Marguerite DurasMarguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Biography:...
.
Todd HaynesTodd Haynes is an American film director best known for the films Poison, Far From Heaven and I'm Not There.- Career :...
'
PoisonPoison is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Todd Haynes. It is composed of three intercut stories that are partially inspired by the novels of Jean Genet...
was also based on the writings of Genet.
Several of Genet's plays were adapted into films.
The BalconyThe Balcony is a cinematic adaptation of Jean Genet's play The Balcony, directed by Joseph Strick and released in 1963. It starred Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee Grant and Leonard Nimoy. George J. Folsey was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Ben Maddow was nominated for a...
(1963), directed by
Joseph StrickJoseph Strick is an American director, producer and screenwriter. He learned film making when serving as a cameraman in the US Air Force in World War II. In 1948, he and Irving Lerner produced Muscle Beach...
, starred
Shelley WintersShelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television.-Early life:...
as Madame Irma,
Peter FalkPeter Michael Falk is an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award twice, and won the Emmy Award on five occasions and the Golden Globe award...
,
Lee GrantLee Grant is an American theater, film and television actress, and film director who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.-Early life:...
and
Leonard NimoyLeonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He is famous for playing the character of Spock on the original Star Trek series, and he reprised the role in various movie and television sequels.-Early life:Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to...
.
The MaidsThe Maids is a 1974 film that was directed by Christopher Miles. It is based on the play of the same title by the French dramatist Jean Genet. The film stars Glenda Jackson as Solange, Susannah York as Claire, Vivien Merchant as Madame, and Mark Burns as Monsieur...
was filmed in 1974 and starred
Glenda JacksonGlenda May Jackson, CBE is an English actress and politician, currently Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate in the London Borough of Camden.- Biography:...
,
Susannah YorkSusannah York is an English film, stage and television actress.-Early life:York was born as Susannah Yolande Fletcher in Chelsea, London in 1939. The daughter of businessman Simon William Peel Vickers Fletcher and his wife Joan Nita Mary Bowrig, York was raised in Scotland where she attended Marr...
and
Vivien MerchantVivien Merchant was a British actress, who was born Ada Thompson. She performed in many stage productions and films, including Alfie and Frenzy...
. Italian director
Salvatore SamperiSalvatore Samperi was an Italian film director.-Selected filmography:* Ernesto * Malicious * Come Play with Me -External links:* at imdb.com...
directed another adaptation of the same play,
La Bonne (Eng.
CorruptionCorruption is a 1968 British film directed by Robert Hartford-Davis, from a screenplay by Derek Ford and Donald Ford, and featuring Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen, Kate O'Mara, David Lodge, Wendy Varnals, Billy Murray, and Vanessa Howard....
), starring
Florence GuerinFlorence Guérin , also known as Florence Nicolas, is a French actress. Born in Nice, France, she appeared in both film and television roles between 1980 and 2008...
and Katrine Michelsen.
Correspondence
- Letters to Roger Blin (Lettres à Roger Blin, 1966)
- Lettres à Olga et Marc Barbezat (1988)
- Lettres au petit Franz (2000)
Drama
Entries show:
English-language translation of title (
French-language title) [year written] / [year first published] / [year first performed]
- Deathwatch (Haute surveillance) 1944/1949/1949
- The Maids
The Maids is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed...
(Les Bonnes) 1946/1947/1947
- Splendid's 1948/1993/
- The Balcony
The Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
(Le Balcon) 1955/1956/1957
- The Blacks
The Blacks: A Clown Show is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris, which opened on 28 October 1959....
(Les Nègres) 1955/1958/1959
- Her (Elle) 1955/1989/
- The Screens
The Screens is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Its first few productions all used abridged versions, beginning with its world première under Hans Lietzau's direction in Berlin in May 1961...
(Les Paravents) 1956-61/1961/1964
Novels and autobiography
Entries show:
English-language translation of title (
French-language title) [year written] / [year first published]
- Our Lady of the Flowers
Our Lady of the Flowers is the debut novel of French writer Jean Genet, first published in 1943. The free-flowing, poetic novel is a largely autobiographical account of a man's journey through the Parisian underworld...
(Notre Dame des Fleurs) 1942/1943
- The Miracle of the Rose
The Miracle of the Rose is a 1946 book by Jean Genet about experiences as a detainee in Mettray Penal Colony and Fontevrault prison - although there is no direct evidence of Genet ever having been imprisoned in the latter establishment...
(Miracle de la Rose) 1946/1951
- Funeral Rites
Funeral Rites is a 1949 novel by Jean Genet. It is a story of love and betrayal across political divides, written this time for the narrator's lover, Jean Decarnin, killed by the Germans in WWII....
(Pompes Funèbres) 1947/1953
- Querelle of Brest
Querelle of Brest is a novel by the French writer Jean Genet. It was written in 1947 and first published in 1953. It is set in the midst of the port town of Brest, where sailors and the sea are associated with murder, and its protagonist is Georges Querelle. The novel formed the basis for Rainer...
(Querelle de Brest) 1947/1953
- The Thief's Journal
The Thief's Journal is perhaps Jean Genet's most famous work. It is a part- fact, part-fiction autobiography that charts the author's progress through Europe in a curiously depoliticized 1930s, wearing nothing but rags and enduring hunger, contempt, fatigue and vice. Spain, Italy, Austria,...
(Journal du voleur) 1949/1949
- Prisoner of Love
-In music:*"Prisoner of Love ", a 1931 song popularized by Russ Columbo and revived by Perry Como and by James Brown*"Prisoner of Love", a song by Foreigner.*"Prisoner of Love ", a 1984 song by Miami Sound Machine...
(Un Captif Amoureux) 1986/1986
Poetry
- The Man Sentenced to Death (Le Condamné à Mort) (written in 1942, first published in 1945)
- Funeral March (Marche Funebre) (1945)
- The Galley (La Galere) (1945)
- A Song of Love (Un Chant d'Amour) (1946)
- The Fisherman of the Suquet (Le Pecheur du Suquet) (1948)
- The Parade (La Parade)(1948)
Essays
On Art
- The Studio of Alberto Giacometti (L'Atelier d'Alberto Giacomett) (1957)
- The Tightrope Walker (Le Funambule)
- Rembrandt's Secret (Le Secret de Rembrandt) (1958)
- What Remains of a Rembrandt Torn Into Little Squares All the Same Size and Shot Down the Toilet (Ce qui est resté d'un Rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés)
- That Strange Word ... (L'etrange Mot D'.)
On Politics
- The Palestinians
- Violence and Brutality
- Four Hours in Shatila (Quatre heures à Chatila) (1982)
Others
- The Criminal Child (L'Enfant criminel): Written in 1949, this text was commissioned by RTF (French radio) but was not played due to its controversial nature. It was published in a limited edition in 1949 and later integrated into Volume 5 of "Oeuvres Completes" (1951)
In English
- Bartlett, Neil
Neil Bartlett was a chemist best known for his work on noble gas compounds. He taught chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:Neil Bartlett was born September 15, 1932 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England...
, trans. 1995. Splendid's. London: Faber. ISBN 0571176135.
- Bray, Barbara, trans. 1992. Prisoner of Love. By Jean Genet. Hanover: Wesleyan UP.
- Frechtman, Bernard, trans. 1960. The Blacks: A Clown Show. By Jean Genet. New York: Grove P. ISBN 0802150284.
- ---. 1963a. Our Lady of the Flowers. By Jean Genet. London: Paladin, 1998.
- ---. 1963b. The Screens. By Jean Genet. London: Faber, 1987. ISBN 0571148751.
- ---. 1965a. The Miracle of the Rose. By Jean Genet. London: Blond.
- ---. 1965b. The Thief's Journal. By Jean Genet. London: Blond.
- ---. 1966. The Balcony. By Jean Genet. Revised edition. London: Faber. ISBN 0571045952.
- ---. 1969. Funeral Rites. By Jean Genet. London: Blond. Reprinted in London: Faber and Faber, 1990.
- ---. 1989. The Maids and Deathwatch: Two Plays. By Jean Genet. London: Faber. ISBN 0571148565.
- Genet, Jean. 1960. "Note." In Wright and Hands (1991, xiv).
- ---. 1962. "How To Perform The Balcony." In Wright and Hands (1991, xi-xiii).
- ---. 1966. Letters to Roger Blin. In Seaver (1972, 7-60).
- ---. 1967. "What Remained of a Rembrandt Torn Up Into Very Even Little Pieces and Chucked Into The Crapper." In Seaver (1972, 75-91).
- ---. 1969. "The Strange Word Urb..." In Seaver (1972, 61-74).
- Seaver, Richard, trans. 1972. Reflections on the Theatre and Other Writings. By Jean Genet. London: Faber. ISBN 0571091040.
- Streatham, Gregory, trans. 1966. Querelle of Brest. By Jean Genet. London: Blond. Reprinted in London: Faber, 2000.
- Wright, Barbara
Barbara Wright was an English translator of modern French literature.Wright studied music and art in Paris in the years before World War II. She began her career as a pianist specialising in the accompaniment of Lieder, supporting herself by working as an art and literary critic, often needing to...
and Terry Hands-Early years:Hands was born at Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He studied at Woking Grammar School, University of Birmingham and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1964 he established the Liverpool Everyman.-Career:...
, trans. 1991. The Balcony. By Jean Genet. London and Boston: Faber. ISBN 0571152465.
Individual editions
- Genet, Jean. 1948. Notre Dame des Fleurs. Lyon: Barbezat-L'Arbalète.
- ---. 1949. Journal du voleur. Paris: Gallimard.
- ---. 1951. Miracle de la Rose. Paris: Gallimard.
- ---. 1953a. Pompes Funèbres. Paris: Gallimard.
- ---. 1953b. Querelle de Brest. Paris: Gallimard.
- ---. 1986. Un Captif Amoureux. Paris: Gallimard.
Complete works
- Genet, Jean. 1952-. Œuvres completes. Paris: Gallimard.
- Volume 1: Saint Genet: comédien et martyr (by J.-P. Sartre)
- Volume 2: Notre-Dame des fleurs - Le condamné à mort - Miracle de la rose - Un chant d’amour
- Volume 3: Pompes funèbres - Le pêcheur du Suquet - Querelle de Brest
- Volume 4: L’étrange mot d’ ... - Ce qui est resté d’un Rembrandt déchiré en petits carrés - Le balcon - Les bonnes - Haute surveillance -Lettres à Roger Blin - Comment jouer ’Les bonnes’ - Comment jouer ’Le balcon’
- Volume 5: Le funambule - Le secret de Rembrandt - L’atelier d’Alberto Giacometti - Les nègres - Les paravents - L’enfant criminel
- Volume 6: L’ennemi déclaré: textes et entretiens
- ---. 2002. Théâtre Complet. Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.
In English
- Barber, Stephen. 2004. Jean Genet. London: Reaktion. ISBN 1861891784.
- Coe, Richard N. 1968. The Vision of Genet. New York: Grove P.
- Driver, Tom Faw. 1966. Jean Genet. New York: Columbia UP.
- Knapp, Bettina Liebowitz. 1968. Jean Genet. New York: Twayne.
- McMahon, Joseph H. 1963. The Imagination of Jean Genet New Haven: Yale UP.
- Oswald, Laura. 1989. Jean Genet and the Semiotics of Performance. Advances in Semiotics ser. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP. ISBN 0253331528.
- Savona, Jeannette L. 1983. Jean Genet. Grove Press Modern Dramatists ser. New York: Grove P. ISBN 0394620453.
- Styan, J. L. 1981. Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd. Vol. 2 of Modern Drama in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521296293.
- Webb, Richard C. 1992. File on Genet. London: Methuen. ISBN 041365530X.
- White, Edmund
Edmund Valentine White III is an American author and literary critic. He is a member of the faculty of Princeton University's Program in Creative Writing.- Life and work :Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he largely grew up in Chicago...
. 1993. Genet. Corrected edition. London: Picador, 1994. ISBN 0330306227.
In French
- El Maleh, Edmond Amran. 1988. Jean Genet, Le captif amoureux: et autres essais. Grenoble: Pensée sauvage. ISBN 2859190643.
- Eribon, Didier. 2001. Une morale du minoritaire: Variations sur un thème de Jean Genet. Paris: Librairie Artème Fayard. ISBN 2213609187.
- Hubert, Marie-Claude. 1996. L'esthétique de Jean Genet. Paris: SEDES. ISBN 2718190361.
- Jablonka, Ivan. 2004. Les vérités inavouables de Jean Genet. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN 202067940X.
- Sartre, Jean-Paul
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy and Existentialism, and his work continues to influence further...
. 1952. Saint Genet, comédien et martyr. In Oeuvres Complétes de Jean Genet I. By Jean Genet. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
External links