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Jean Genet (1910 - 1986)
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 Genet
: In the Language of the Enemy (Yale French Studies, No 91) by
Scott Durham (Editor)
"I couldn't change the world alone, I could
only pervert it: that is what I attempted by a corruption of
language, that is to say from within this French language that
appears so noble." It is in these terms that Jean Genet
describes his ambiguous role in the French literary canon: that of
an enemy within, one who puts the monuments and forms of the
dominant culture in a "war of words." This volume
investigates the stakes and boundaries of this war for Genet and
for his readers, offering new interpretations of his works and
showing how they oblige us to rethink our own relations, as
readers and interpreters, to literature itself.
 Our
Lady of the Flowers by
Jean Genet, Jean-Paul
Sartre (Introduction), Bernard Frechtman (Translator)
Although I first came across Genet reading
"The Thief's Journal", I believe this to be his greatest
work (if not the greatest work of modern fiction, better than
"Ulysses"). His writing lyrically flows and gives the
work an organic unity. No other work, except "Swann's
Way" by Proust, has the creative control and beautiful images
Genet infuses in his work. A recommended read for all people. A
shimmeringly beautiful work of fiction which makes the underworld
and the sexual outlaw sublime. -- Anonymous Review
 The
Thief's Journal by
Jean Genet, Bernard Frechtman (Translator), Jean-Paul
Sartre
Genet's "the Thief's Journal" is to me
his greatest novel-if that's what you want to categorize it as.
The only reason I don't say its his greatest book is because of a
wonderful book called "Prisoner of Love", and who knows
what may turn up although I doubt much of anything as he was so
private and transient. Anyway, it clearly maps out the genesis of
his artistic, sexual, and criminal life. For any gay male reader,
it is essential, higher in priority than almost any other gay
fiction. Of course, it is essential not just to gays but any
serious reader. On a final note it is also quite accessible. so if
you tried reading "Our Lady..." or others I think you
will be pleasantly surprised and absorbed... For cultural
referents, Todd Haynes film "Poison"
was in part inspired by Genet and John Waters named Glenn Milstead
"DIVINE" from one of Genet's novels. So there you are...
-- Anonymous Review
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Excerpt:
Jean Genet, the illegitimate son of a Parisian
prostitute, was born on October 19, 1910, and orphaned seven
months later. At the age of thirteen, after having subsisted as a
ward of the state, he inaugurated a life of crime and adventure by
gaily spending, at a county fair, a sum of money that his guardian
had entrusted to him. From ages 15 to 18, Genet spent an
impressionable period at the Mettray penitentiary, a place of hard
labor, where a code of love, honor, gesture and justice was
enforced by the inmates; and where his sexual awakening occurred.
After this, serving in the French Foreign Legion, he went to
Syria. This period was succeeded, upon desertion of the Legion, by
travel and numerous imprisonments, during which time he survived
by petty theft, begging, and homosexual prostitution. By the age
of 23, Genet was living in Spain, sleeping with a one-armed pimp,
lice-ridden and begging - a period which became the basis for The
Thief's Journal...
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By Petri Liukkonen
French writer, a convicted felon, who as a
dramatist became one of the leading figures in the avant-garde
theater. Genet has described in his works the underworld, male
prostitutes, convicts, pimps and social outcasts. Genet's life
changed radically when such prominent figures as Jean-Paul Sartre
and Jean Cocteau clamored successfully for his parole. He
subsequently left criminal world to become a writer. However,
Genet was for a long time so addicted to theft that he stole
diamonds from his hostesses at a literary reception...
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From Encarta
Excerpt:
French novelist and dramatist, whose writings,
dwelling upon bizarre and grotesque aspects of human existence,
express profound rebellion against society and its conventions.
Born in Paris, Genet was the illegitimate child of a prostitute.
He was caught stealing at the age of ten and by early adolescence
had begun to serve a series of sentences, spanning nearly 30
years, for theft and homosexual prostitution. In 1947, following
his tenth conviction for theft, he was sentenced to life
imprisonment. While he was in prison Genet had been writing and
publishing, and his growing literary reputation induced a group of
leading French authors to petition for his pardon, which was
granted in 1948 by the president of France...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
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| Authors
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