Durham E-Theses Jean genet and his novels Haines, S. F. E. How to cite: Haines, S. F. E. (1974) Jean genet and his novels, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9892/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk JEAN GENET AND HIS NOVELS - S. P. E. HAINES - M.A. THESIS 1974 The known facts of Genet's early life are few. He has an illegitimate child, brought up on public charity. A thief and a homosexual, he spent much of his life between the ages of ten and thirty in reformatories and prisons. Genet's early novels consist almost entirely of the author's personal preoccupations. Notre-Dame des Fleurs and Miracle de la Rose express despair and dreams of fantasy existences, thus providing an outlet for Genet's frustrations and aggression. Together with Journal du Voleur, these two novels appear to be autobiography. Rather than relating facts however, their aim is to reinterpret Genet's past life and to endow it with the deliberate motive of attaining perfection in solitude, evil and "saintetS"; they thus attempt to create a credible Legend for their author. This retrospective reappraisal is consciously written to coincide with the image forced upon Genet by the society which had rejected him as a child. Pompes Funebres and Querelle de Brest, as well as Genet's subsequent plays, are concerned less with Genet's own personality; they attempt to implicate the entire "civilised" world in an ethic, which theoretically shatters long-perpetuated assumptions concerning relationships between individuals and groups within society. Genet's attack upon society's values is made effective by his use of language. His stylised technique, with its symbolism and lyricism, reassures and impresses; by contrast the ideas expressed aim to violate social taboos and to provoke a shock reaction in the reader. For Genet writing provided first an escape, both imaginary and real, from prison, life; it is his consequent reacceptance by society which allows the possibility of his "revenge". Genet, the self- confessed embodiment of Evil, sets out, by writing pornography, to destroy the Virtuous society which he loathes. Morally he both succeeds and fails in this task because of the flaw in society's ethic, whereby artistic creativity is rewarded, without reference to the philosophy expressed. ********** S. F. E. HAINES JEAN GENET. AND HIS NOVELS M.A. THESIS, 1974 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Genet begins to write: Notre-Dame des Fleurs 12 Chapter 2 Miracle de la Rose, Fast Reality and Present Introspection 21 Chapter 3 Predestination and Perfection 32 Chapter 4 Solitude and the Homosexual Relationship 44 Chapter 5 Sainthood and Betrayal: Pompes Funebres 57 Chapter 6 Genet's personal philosophy: Querelle de Brest 77 Chapter 7 The Style of the Novels 98 Conclusion 125 Bibliography 137 ABBREVIATIONS Throughout the text with the exception of the Introduction, where full titles are given, the following abbreviations have been used for Genet's prose works: Notre-Dame Notre-Dame des Fleurs Miracle Miracle de la Rose Querelle Querelle de Brest Journal Journal du Voleur 1 Introduction This study, Jean Genet and his Novels, will attempt to trace Genet's life before, during and after his prose writing and to establish the nature of the relationship which exists between his life and his work. It is generally accepted that the novels, and in particular Notre-Dame des Fleurs, Miracle de la Rose and Journal du Voleur, are autobiographical and, in view of the lack of a reliably objective biography, the reader and critic must rely heavily upon these works. In quoting statements from the novels as evidence of biographical fact it must be remembered that the author's aim is to reconstruct his past life not only as it was but also as he chooses to reinterpret it (1). Since Genet may be attempting deliberately to mislead the reader the factual validity of apparently true information and events must be questioned. In considering Genet's novels, their form, content and recurrent themes, this study will aim primarily to examine motives, reasons and results from the point of view of the author who created the novels. Any attempt to assess Genet's work as revenge or as an attack upon society is inevitably confronted by two difficulties. Firstly it is impossible to evaluate objectively the actual effect of an author's attempts to change society or to persuade the reader of his point of view; and secondly Genet's writing considered solely as philosophy or propaganda, however anarchic, contains inconsistencies of attitude and statement which inevitably weaken his arguments and thus their potential power to convince others. Thus, while neglecting neither Genet's attitude towards the world . nor his very definite and deliberate attack upon civilised society and its (1) There are many occasions throughout the novels where Genet admits to this and similar aims: Notre-Dame des Fleurs (Gallimard) 1969 pp. 114/188/195. Miracle de la.Rose (Gallimard) 1969 pp. 243/339. Journal du Voleur (Gallimard) 1968 pp. 61-62/65/75-76/115-16/. 217-18/284-85. 2 values, this study will seek to interpret the novels from the point of view of their complex relationship with their author. Jean Genet was born in Paris on December 19th 1910, abandoned by his mother and brought up by "L'Assistance Publique". It was not until the age of 21 that Genet discovered the place of his birth, 22, rue d'Assas, his mother's name, Gabrielle Genet, and the fact that his father was unknown. Thus he was both illegitimate and an orphan, cared for by the state until the age of 7, when he was adopted by a peasant family in the Morvan region of France (2). Here for a few years he probably lived a conventional childhood, being brought up to respect and adhere to the moral values of a rural, village community, where property, honesty and the family were the essential priorities. By the age of ten Genet had already begun to steal small trivial objects. He was caught, punished and called a thief (3). The significance which can be attached to this labelling will be discussed at a later stage. Its effect however, as Jean-Paul Sartre points out, was to change the course of Genet's life, thought, outlook and attitude towards himself and others. After repeated offences, at the age of 15, Genet was sent to Mettray, a Borstal-like reformatory (4). The exact reason for his being sent here is uncertain (5). He spent three years at Mettray and its effect, rather than to reform was to harden his attitude towards the society which had imprisoned him. Genet met other delinquents, most of whom were probably more violent, less intelligent and less sensitive than he. Here however he felt part of a family, albeit a criminal one. The system inside the reformatory, like that of the peasant society outside, was rigidly structured with a defined and inflexible hierarchy based on power and status. Genet was again at the bottom of the scale. (2) Journal du Voleur (Gallimard) 1968 p. 46. (3) Genet's statement concerning the age at which he began to steal appears in Journal du Voleur (extraits) p. 41 Les Temps Modernes No. 10 July 1946 pp. 33-56. (4) Miracle de la Rose (Gallimard) 1969 p. 275. (5) Two possible reasons. Laziness: Journal du Voleur (Gallimard) 1968 p. 47./ For gouging out a boy's eye: Miracle de la Rose (Gallimard) 1969 p. 405. 3 Physically he was neither imposing nor violent, and by the standards of the other inmates his criminal record was unimpressive. At Mettray too Genet seems to have gained his first homosexual experience, although he does comment in Journal du Voleur that he had a liking for young boys before he was sent to the reformatory (6). Adolescent homosexuality is a common enough phenomenon however, especially in all-male establishments, and thus Genet's participation would not have been remarkable. After his imprisonment at Mettray, which lasted from 1926 to 1929 (7), Genet ran away and joined the Foreign Legion, but deserted after only a short stay (8). The next fifteen years of Genet's life were a history of crime and imprisonment; he travelled throughout Europe's underworld, stealing and committing petty crimes wherever he went (9). Among the countries he visited was Hitler's Germany, but he stayed here only a short time because, as a thief he felt constricted and ill at ease. He writes in Journal du Voleur: "Le scandale est impossible. Je vole a vide" (10). During this period he moved in and became familiar with the underworld society of thieves, pimps, male prostitutes, homosexuals and murderers.