|
Jean Genet
Life Time
19 December 1910 - 15 April 1986
|
Jean Genet was born on December 19, 1910 in Paris. His mother, a mentally unstable woman, gave her son to be raised in a peasant family. As a child, Jean was a very obedient boy. At the age of 10, he decides to become a thief. At the age of fifteen, a young man enters a colony in which life experience is gained. Two years later, he escaped from the colony. At eighteen he enlisted in the Foreign Legion. During the German occupation of France, Jean-Genet was almost always imprisoned. Jean began his
more
Jean Genet was born on December 19, 1910 in Paris. His mother, a mentally unstable woman, gave her son to be raised in a peasant family. As a child, Jean was a very obedient boy. At the age of 10, he decides to become a thief. At the age of fifteen, a young man enters a colony in which life experience is gained. Two years later, he escaped from the colony. At eighteen he enlisted in the Foreign Legion. During the German occupation of France, Jean-Genet was almost always imprisoned.
Jean began his work in the 1940s. In his first works he spoke of homosexuality and crime. The novel Our Lady of Flowers was published in 1943. Thanks to this work, the writer opened the doors to the literary world. At the same time, he met Jean Cocteau and Jean-Paul Sartre. These people become fans of his work, as well as his good friends. Thanks to these people, Jean will no longer go to prison and avoid life imprisonment. In 1952, Jean-Paul Sartre published a book in which he analyzed Jean-Genet’s work in detail. The latter was so shocked by the analysis that it led to a creative crisis that ended only in 1956.
In the period from 1956 to 1961, three plays by Jean Genet were published – “Balcony”, “Negroes”, “Shirma”. These works demonstrate a completely different side of the talent of the author, who previously wrote five novels.
The delicacy and unusualness of the themes of Jean Genet’s works is unique for that time. This led to the fact that in the middle of the XX century, many works of the author were banned in the United States and other countries.
In 1960, Jean was actively involved in the political life of the country, taking part in demonstrations. He died of cancer on April 15, 1986.