Jean Genet is a famous French poet, writer and playwright. Many readers are ambiguous about his work, so far it has caused fierce debate among critics. The fact is that the main characters of his works are marginal persons: prostitutes, thieves, pimps, killers, smugglers.
Writer Biography
Jean Genet was born in 1910 in Paris. His mother, a mentally unbalanced woman, gave the boy to be raised in a peasant family.
As a child, Jean Genet was an obedient and very pious child. However, at the age of ten he was caught stealing. Later it turned out that he was not involved in the theft. But it was late, resentful of those around him and the whole world, he firmly decided to go the wrong way and become a thief. Later, Jean Genet himself wrote that he began to deny the world, which denied him.
From an early age, the child's life was overshadowed by numerous difficulties. At the age of 15, he ended up in a juvenile colony due to constant thefts. This fact did not sadden him at all. On the contrary, Jean became a favorite among charismatic and strong teenagers, he was proud of the fact that he enjoys their authority. The author described the time spent in the colony in the novel The Miracle of the Rose, which was published in 1946.
Jail break
Meanwhile, at the end of 1927, the writer managed to escape. But Zhenya could not hide for a long time, he was caught and returned back to prison. To go free, at the age of eighteen he enrolled in the Foreign Legion. But he could not stay long in the service. According to the biography of Jean Genet, described in official sources, historians have revealed the fact of the abduction of things of one of the officers and the escape from the army.
In civilian life, the author had to interrupt random earnings. Periodically, he was caught in petty thefts. For theft, vagrancy and forgery of documents several times he ended up in prison. During World War II, when France was under occupation, Genet was serving another prison term.
Debut
Jean Genet, whose photo you will find in this article, turned to literary work in the early 40s. His very first works were devoted to the sensitive topics of crime and homosexuality for that time.
He managed to publish his very first novel in 1943. It was called "Our Lady of the Flowers." The book immediately became successful, opening up new opportunities for the hero of our article. In many ways, this is an autobiographical novel in which there are many erotic scenes. It tells about the life of the Parisian bottom. The writer Jean Genet copied the characters of his characters from real people.
He began working on the book in 1942 when he was in prison. The next term for his wife was serving for stealing a volume of Proust from a bookstore. The writer admits that he aroused erotic fantasies and wrote them down on paper. In the book they are attributed to the young prostitute Divina, who, dying, recalls her former lovers. This novel is attributed to the best books of Jean Genet.
For the first time, the novel was unofficially published in just 350 copies. It was only in 1944 that the general public was able to get to know him when a fragment of the work was published in the Crossbow magazine. Interestingly, the book was originally intended for a narrow readership. Therefore, Genet removed the most shocking moments from the novel before the mass printing of the book.
The plot of the novel "Our Lady of the Flowers"
In the very first novel, Genet tells the story of a transvestite prostitute Divina, whose name is translated from French as "divine". At the beginning of the work, she dies of tuberculosis, and as a result, she is considered a saint.
Divina shares the attic with a view of the Montmartre cemetery with her many lovers, most often with her pimp Deyntifootom. He brings a killer and a bully, nicknamed "Our Lady of the Flowers", who begins to live with them. When the hero is arrested, he is sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly client.
Talent Fans
The publication of the first book of Jean Genet was marked by the appearance of fans of his work. By that time, he himself had time to meet with writer Andre Gide and publisher Jean Descarnen, who became his lover.
Creativity Wife admired Sartre and Cocteau. They helped him avoid a life sentence for the theft of a rare edition of the 19th century French poet Paul Verlaine. The incident sobering up the writer, he no longer wants to go to jail. Over the next five years, Genet wrote novels “The Miracle of the Rose,” “The Celebration of the Funeral,” “Kerel,” and “The Diary of a Thief.” A collection of his works is being prepared for publication, the foreword for which Sartre himself undertakes to write. Surprisingly, the French philosopher was able to stop only when he had already written 600 pages. As a result, it was released separately in 1952 under the title "Saint Wife, Comedian and Martyr."
His wife was deeply shocked by the depth of analysis of his work, as well as literary fame that suddenly fell on him. The books of Jean Genet were actively snapped up, although many criticized them for being too frank.
For the prose writer, all this led to sad consequences, he began a creative crisis, which lasted until 1956.
"Handmaids"
The rise in popularity of Zhenya was promoted not only by his novels, but also by the play. The most famous of them was called "Handmaids." Jean Genet wrote it in 1947. It was first staged that same year by the French playwright Louis Jouvet. In the Soviet Union, they learned about it thanks to Roman Viktyuk.
Interestingly, there are two versions of this text. The first was published in the magazine "Crossbow". The second option, according to the playwright himself, was written in longing and out of vanity.
In this play, Jean Genet talks about the maids in the house of Madame: the sisters Solange and Claire le Mercier. They secretly report to the police on Monsieur. As long as there is no mistress who suffers because of her spouse who has ended up in prison, the handmaids begin to play the scene of her murder among themselves, dressing in her outfits, trying to parody her manner of speaking.
Monsieur is released suddenly. The handmaids immediately understand that they are threatened with exposure in the near future. To avoid this, they decide to poison their mistress by adding deadly poison to the lime broth. However, Claire eventually dies, who took the poison along with Madame.
This work of Genet filmed more often than others. In 1962, a television show was released in Denmark, then in Germany, Sweden and the UK. In 2006, a television version of the play by Roman Viktyuk in Russia was released.
In 1994, “Handmaids” were staged at the Royal Swedish Opera.
Return
Genet returned to literature both as a novelist and as a playwright. Since 1956, he has been releasing three of his famous plays, one after the other: Balcony, Negroes and Screens. In them, he demonstrates a completely different side of his talent, moving from autobiographical prose, thanks to which he became famous, to allegories with a political connotation.
The personal life of Jean Genet intertwined with homosexuals, with whom he entered into a relationship. In the late 50s, he falls in love with a tightrope walker Abdul of Arab origin. However, their relationship did not last long, and soon Abdula committed suicide, having been the victim of several injuries and accidents that affected his career. After that, Genet became depressed. After this personal tragedy, he wrote nothing more, and became interested exclusively in politics.
The delicacy and unusualness of many topics in Genet's works led to the fact that in the 1950s most of his books were banned in America. Many of these topics were categorically taboo in the United States at that time.
Political and social activities
Genet joined the political life of France in the late 60s. He constantly participated in demonstrations for improving the living conditions of African immigrants who live in his country. He supported the famous student unrest that took place in Paris. In addition, Genet did not hide his homosexuality, becoming one of the symbols and inspirers of the movement for equality of representatives of non-traditional sexual orientation. Though he didn’t want it.
In 1970, Zhenya was invited to the United States by leaders of the left-wing American party of blacks called Black Panthers. Their main goal was to promote the civil rights of black people. There he went to trial over their leader Huey Newton, and also lectured.
Trip to Beirut
In 1982, Genet arrived in Beirut. This happened just a few days after the massacre in Chatil and Sabra. The militants of the Lebanese Kataib party conducted a military operation there, during which they were engaged in the destruction of Palestinian militants. A year after that, he published an essay entitled "Four Hours in Chatill." As the Egyptian writer Sueif noted, the Palestinians found a close friend for themselves in Wife.
Constantly a French writer spoke positively of the USSR, considering it a leaven for the rest of the world.
Death
Over the past few years, Genet has struggled with throat cancer. In April 1986, his body was found in a hotel room in the Arab region of Paris. The writer still lived in hotels, since he did not get his own housing, despite the years of his successful work.
He asked to be buried in a Spanish cemetery in the small Moroccan town of Larache, not far from the house in which he had once lived. He bequeathed the rights to publish his works to his former lover.
After the death of the writer, this young man, who used to be almost unknown to anyone, appeared from time to time at the Gallimar publishing house to receive royalties. Those who met with him noted that he never spoke to anyone, silently took money and simply left. However, he was illiterate, so he could not even sign the statement.
The last years the hero of our article spent in poverty and oblivion, as at the beginning of his life. For most of those around him, he was actually forgotten and abandoned. But after his death, his fellow writers and the government remembered him, awarding him various prizes, recognizing his literary merits and achievements.
Zhenya had many fans in our country. Among them is the writer and political activist Eduard Limonov, who admired the French writer and tried to imitate him.
Poetry
There are a lot of poems in the work of Jean Genet. Most of his poetic works, like the rest of his work, are devoted to representatives of the lower strata of society.
One of the poems is dedicated to the 20-year-old killer Maurice Pilorzh.
Screen adaptations of works
Some of the works of Genet himself filmed. In 1950, he directed the feature film "Song of Love", also acting as a screenwriter.
The action of this picture takes place in a French prison. A voyeur guard watches over two inmates. They are in neighboring cells, represent sex with each other, while doing masturbation.
Critics say that in the middle of the last century, this quasi-pornographic film was available only to a select few viewers. Genet himself wished that this movie was never seen by a mass audience.
In 1963, an adaptation of the play by Genet "The Balcony", made by Joseph Strick, was released. The main character of the film of the same name is an elite prostitute who works in a brothel. Here, wealthy visitors realize their secret erotic desires.
In 1982, the cult German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed the drama Kerel based on the novel of the same name by Genet, which tells about the adventures of a murderer and a homosexual psychopath. Starring Brad Davis and Franco Nero.
"Poison"
In 1991, American director Todd Haines directed the drama Poison, inspired by progeny Genet. These were stories about sex, outsiders and violence.
The first story is about a 7-year-old boy who killed his own father. This episode was shot in the pseudo-documentary style of an investigation film from an interview with the main defendants in the case.
The second story, entitled “Horror,” is about a researcher of human sexuality. At the same time, he himself becomes a victim of the experiment and turns into a killer and a freak. This episode was shot in the style of a classic base sci-fi movie of the 50s of the XX century.
The third story of “Homo” is dedicated to a homosexual thief who is in prison in a cell with prisoners who are also familiar from the boarding school for juvenile delinquents.